DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 


THE  LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K. 
PEARSONS,  FRIEND  OF 
THE  SMALL  COLLEGE 
AND  OF  MISSIONS  :  :  : : 


BY 

EDWARD  F.  WILLIAMS 


THE    PILGRIM    PRESS 

NEW  YORK  BOSTON         CHICAGO 


Copyright,  1911 
EDWARD  F.  WILLIAMS 


THE   RUMFORD   PRESS 
CONCORD  •  N  •  H  •  U  •  S  •  A  • 


To 
MRS.  MARIETTA  CHAPIN  PEARSONS 

WIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS,  HELPER  IN  THE  ACQUISITION  OF  HIS 
FORTUNE,  SYMPATHIZER  WITH  HIM  IN  ITS  DISTRIBUTION,  A  LOVING 
COMPANION  AND  A  WISE  COUNCILLOR  FOR  NEARLY  SIXTY  YEARS,  THIS 
ACCOUNT  OF  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  HER  HUSBAND  IS  DEDICATED 


241305 


PREFACE 

THIS  book  has  been  written  to  stimulate  and 
encourage  those  into  whose  hands  wealth 
has  come,  to  make,  while  yet  alive  such  dis- 
tribution of  it  as  they  would  wish  others  to  make  of 
it  after  their  decease.  The  story  of  what  Dr. 
Pearsons  has  done  is  full  of  stimulus  and  hope  for 
ambitious  young  men,  even  if  born  poor.  It  bears 
testimony  to  the  value  of  principle,  earnest  purpose, 
and  devotion  to  a  single  object  while  that  object  is 
pursued.  It  shows  what  a  change  in  public  senti- 
ment, gifts  wisely  made  and  scattered  over  a  series 
of  years,  can  produce  in  reference  to  such  institutions 
of  learning  as  our  small  colleges.  If  the  State  Uni- 
versities and  the  marvellous  work  they  have  done, 
owe  their  existence  to  the  Morrill  Act,  the  sugges- 
tion of  a  Vermont  man,  the  small  colleges  and  the 
thousands  of  young  people  who  attend  them  owe 
the  work  they  are  doing  and  the  regard  in  which 
they  are  held  to  the  gifts  of  another  Vermont  man, 
the  man  whose  life  and  deeds  it  is  the  purpose  of  this 
book  to  relate. 

It  should  be  said  that  the  responsibility  for  the 
appearance  of  the  book  rests  wholly  upon  its  author 
and  not  all  upon  Dr.  Pearsons,  who  has  not  even 
suggested  that  any  record  of  what  he  has  done  for 
higher  education  be  made  public. 


Vll 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     BIRTH,    ANCESTRY,    EDUCATION,     EARLY 
LIFE.  PROFESSIONAL  LIFE  IN  CHICOPEE, 

MASS 3 

II.     PREPARATION  FOR  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO  .      .  15 

III.  CHICAGO  IN  1860  AND  AFTER    ....  27 

IV.  BUSINESS  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO     ....  37 
V.     BUSINESS  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO — CONTINUED  49 

VI.  BEGINNING  OF  A  GREAT  BENEVOLENT 
CAREER.  GIFTS  TO  CHICAGO  INSTITU- 
TIONS. DECISION  TO  AID  COLLEGES  .  67 
VII.  CONDITION  OF  THE  DENOMINATIONAL  COL- 
LEGES WHEN  DR.  PEARSONS  MADE  His 
FIRST  GIFTS  TO  THEM.  PRINCIPLES 
UPON  WHICH  THESE  GIFTS  HAVE  BEEN 

MADE 89 

VIII.    GIFTS  TO  ILLINOIS  INSTITUTIONS     .      .      .     101 
IX.    GIFTS  FOR  INSTITUTIONS  EAST  OF  CHICAGO    115 
X.    GIFTS  TO  BELOIT  COLLEGE        ....     131 
XI.    GIFTS  TO  OTHER  WESTERN  COLLEGES  THAN 

BELOIT 145 

XII.  AID  FOR  BEREA  COLLEGE 167 

XIII.  AID  FOR  OTHER  SOUTHERN  COLLEGES  THAN 

BEREA 183 

XIV.  AID  FOR  COLLEGES  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST    199 
XV.    GIFTS  TO  MISSIONS  AND  MISSIONARY  COL- 
LEGES       

ix 


x  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVI.    APPRECIATIVE  WORDS 239 

XVII.     RETROSPECT 255 

INDEX 273 

APPENDICES 

I.  An  Address  by  Dr.  Pearsons  at  Battle  Creek 

or  a  Lesson  in  Practical  Philanthropy     .     281 

II.  Address  to  the  Public  on  the  Ninety-first 

Anniversary  of  his  Birth,  announcing  the 
end  of  his  career  as  a  Philanthropist  .  294 
III.  Minute  written  by  Dr.  Simeon  Gilbert,  for- 
mer editor  of  The  Advance,  and  adopted 
by  the  Congregational  Club  in  recogni- 
tion of  the  Ninety-first  Birthday  of  Dr. 
Pearsons  304 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS       ....    Frontispiece 

THE  HOME  AT  HINSDALE 56 

MRS.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 193 

DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS  AT  NINETY  262 


XI 


BIRTH,  ANCESTRY,  EDUCATION,  EARLY  LIFE 
PROFESSIONAL  LIFE  IN  CHICOPEE,  MASS. 


LIFE  OF  DR.   D.   K.  PEARSONS 


BIRTH,  ANCESTRY,  EDUCATION,  EARLY  LIFE 
PROFESSIONAL  LIFE  IN  CHICOPEE,  MASS. 

DANIEL  K3MBALL  PEARSONS  was  born 
April  14,  1820,  on  a  farm  two  and  one  half 
miles  distant  from  the  center  of  the  town  of 
Bradford,  Vermont.  There  were  seven  children  in 
the  family,  six  sons  and  one  daughter.  Two  of  the 
sons,  Charles  and  Arthur,  died  in  infancy.  The 
daughter,  Elizabeth,  the  youngest  of  the  family, 
married  Dr.  A.  M.  Gushing  of  Springfield,  Massa- 
chusetts, where  she  died  June  17,  1880,  leaving  two 
sons,  one  of  whom  is  a  lawyer  in  New  York  City, 
and  the  other  principal  of  the  New  Haven  (Conn.) 
High  School.  John  Alonzo,  the  eldest  son,  was  the 
first  settler  in  Evanston,  Illinois.  In  1854,  the  year 
of  his  arrival  at  Evanston,  there  was  but  one  house 
on  the  more  than  three  hundred  acres  of  land  which 
the  newly  organized  university  had  purchased. 
This  house  Mr.  Pearsons  and  his  wife  occupied.  For 
several  years  he  ran  an  express  wagon  between  the 
suburban  village  and  the  city  of  Chicago;  later  he 
engaged  in  the  lumber  business.  His  house  was 

3 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

headquarters  for  Methodist  ministers  and  for  every- 
thing that  pertained  to  the  interests  of  Methodism 
in  Evanston.  Throughout  life  he  and  Mrs.  Pearsons 
took  a  deep  interest  in  the  welfare  of  their  Church 
and  University.  One  of  the  Ladies'  Halls  is  known 
as  the  Mrs.  John  A.  Pearsons  Hall.  Mr.  Pearsons 
died  January  25,  1902,  honored  and  loved  by  all 
who  knew  him.  William  Baron  Chapin,  the  third 
son,  was  born  at  Fairlee,  Vermont,  in  1814.  He  died 
at  Holyoke,  Massachusetts,  in  1897.  He  was  edu- 
cated in  the  common  schools  and  academies  of  his 
native  state,  but  studied  law  in  the  Harvard  Law 
School,  graduating  in  1849.  He  settled  very  soon 
thereafter  in  Holyoke,  Massachusetts,  making,  as 
he  used  to  say,  the  thirteenth  lawyer  seeking  a  living 
in  that  then  rather  small  village.  His  reputation 
for  honesty  and  ability,  his  urbanity  and  public 
spirit  led  to  his  appointment  by  the  Governor  of 
the  State,  as  Judge  in  the  Police  Court,  a  position  he 
filled  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  public  and  retained 
until  his  death.  He  was  an  ardent  lover  of  music, 
and  through  his  efforts  made  it  possible  for  the  citi- 
zens of  Holyoke  to  listen  frequently  to  the  best 
music  of  the  times.  He  served  the  city  three  times 
as  its  mayor  and  never  failed  on  any  occasion  to  do 
whatever  he  could  to  advance  its  interests.  After 
the  death  of  his  father,  and  until  the  mother  had  a 
house  of  her  own  built  for  her  by  her  second  son, 
she  lived  in  his  family.  She  died  in  1885  at  the  age 
of  ninety-one  years  and  four  months.  George,  the 
fourth  son,  who  became  a  business  man  at  an  early 

4 


BIRTH,  ANCESTRY  AND  EDUCATION 

age,  made  his  home  in  Fort  Dodge,  Iowa.  Here  he 
acquired  a  competent  fortune,  and  was  recognized 
as  a  man  of  sterling  integrity  and  a  leader  in  public 
affairs.  He  was  interested  in  the  building  of  rail- 
roads, the  draining  of  swamps,  and  in  whatever 
concerned  the  welfare  of  the  state.  He  was  three 
times  chosen  mayor  of  his  adopted  city,  and  from 
1885  to  1888  was  Indian  Inspector,  to  the  great 
advantage  of  his  wards.  He  died  in  July,  1904,  aged 
74,  leaving  three  sons  and  a  daughter,  who  became 
the  wife  of  the  late  Senator  Dolliver  of  Iowa.  Mr. 
Pearsons  began  his  business  life  in  connection  with  the 
Vermont  Central  Railroad.  In  1868  he  moved  to  Fort 
Dodge,  Iowa,  where  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his 
days.  The  brothers  differed  from  each  other  in 
temperament  and  personal  appearance,  but  were 
alike  in  their  high  standards  of  duty  and  in  their 
genuine  patriotism.  Above  the  ordinary  size,  wher- 
ever they  went,  they  impressed  people  by  their  mag- 
nificent physique  and  their  courtly  manners. 

The  parents  were  of  Puritan  stock  and  trained 
their  children  carefully  in  the  principles  of  their 
faith.  Of  John  Pearsons,  the  father,  his  son,  the 
Doctor,  says,  "He  was  the  honestest  man  I  ever 
knew."  A  Vermont  farmer,  a  descendant  of  a  fam- 
ily which,  though  with  Scotch  blood  in  its  veins,  had 
resided  in  the  state  about  one  hundred  years,  by 
strict  economy  he  obtained  a  good  living  from 
his  land,  and  at  his  death  left  his  children  an 
honored  name  and  a  character  in  which  they  could 
not  detect  a  flaw.  The  mother,  Hannah  Putnam,  a 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

distant  relative  of  the  famous  Israel  Putnam,  was 
distinguished  for  her  mental  gifts  and  her  personal 
beauty.  Her  sparkling  black  eyes  and  her  keen 
wit  have  descended  to  her  second  son,  who  resem- 
bles her  more  than  any  of  her  other  children.  John 
Pearsons  and  his  wife  were  members  of  the  Metho- 
dist Church  of  Bradford,  and  in>  it  the  children 
acquired  their  church-going  habit.  Dr.  Pearsons 
has  often  referred  to  the  long  walks  he  took  with 
his  mother  Sunday  mornings  to  attend  Sunday 
school.  The  grandparents  on  the  father's  side  were 
Congregationalists.  To  each  of  these  churches  the 
Doctor  has  given  a  fund  of  five  thousand  dol- 
lars on  condition  that  the  Methodists  care  for 
the  graves  of  the  father  and  mother,  and  the  Congre- 
gationalists for  the  graves  of  the  grandparents. 
He  has  also  provided  a  library  for  his  native  town. 
In  the  winter  the  children  attended  the  district 
school,  and  in  the  summer  worked  on  the  farm. 
Early  in  his  life  Daniel  determined  to  get  an  educa- 
tion and  make  a  place  for  himself  in  the  world.  His 
mother  encouraged  him  and  his  father  was  ready  to 
assist  him  as  far  as  his  means  allowed.  He  studied 
in  the  Bradford  Academy  and  in  the  Montpelier 
Conference  (then  Newbury)  Seminary,  where  he 
prepared  for  Dartmouth  College,  and  where  he  was 
converted.  To  this  seminary  he  has  given  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  as  part  of  its  endowment.  Lack 
of  money  compelled  him  to  leave  college  at  the  end 
of  the  first  year.  He  had  lived  on  less  than  a  dollar 
a  week,  had  boarded  himself,  and  like  many  another 

6 


BIRTH,  ANCESTRY  AND  EDUCATION 

young  man  eager  for  an  education,  he  taught  school 
for  several  winters  in  Vermont  and  Massachusetts. 
Although  he  began  to  teach  when  only  sixteen  he 
was  very  successful.  During  these  formative  years 
an  incident  occurred  which  illustrates  what  he  has 
always  called  the  care  of  "a  kind  providence." 
When  about  eighteen  or  nineteen  he  decided  to  go 
to  Boston,  find  a  place  in  a  store  and  become  a  mer- 
chant. For  days  he  walked  the  streets  unsuccess- 
fully. No  one  wanted  him.  With  his  money  nearly 
gone,  he  went  down  to  the  market,  near  Faneuil 
Hall,  met  a  man  with  a  truck  wagon,  who  hired  him 
at  once  and  took  him  out  on  the  wagon  to  his  home 
in  Brookline  where  he  had  a  dairy  and  a  small  farm. 
At  the  end  of  the  season  his  employer,  an  earnest 
Baptist,  advised  him  to  attend  the  Manual  Labor 
School  which  his  denomination  had  established  at 
Worcester,  Massachusetts,  where  he  could  earn  his 
way  without  interfering  with  his  studies.  He  took 
the  advice  and  at  the  close  of  the  term  a  committee 
from  a  school  in  the  suburbs  came  to  the  Academy 
for  a  teacher,  and  after  interviewing  several  of  the 
young  men  who  had  been  recommended,  insisted 
on  seeing  "that  young  man  from  Vermont,  who 
had  paid  his  way  by  his  work,"  and  the  only  one 
in  the  school  who  had  done  so.  A  brief  consul- 
tation with  him  led  to  his  employment  as  the  teacher 
of  a  school  in  which  his  experiences  have  been  cher- 
ished in  memory  as  among  the  pleasantest  of  his 
life.  With  the  money  saved  from  his  Brookline 
engagement  and  from  his  winter's  service  he  was 

7 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

able  to  continue  his  preparation  for  college.  In  his 
later  years  Dr.  Pearsons  spoke  very  often  of  the 
pleasure  he  had  in  teaching,  especially  in  helping 
earnest  students  to  overcome  what  to  them  seemed 
at  times  insurmountable  difficulties.  In  one  of  his 
five  schools  he  had  an  encounter  with  a  bully,  larger 
than  himself,  whom  he  had  whipped  thoroughly  to 
the  great  joy  of  the  school  and  of  the  entire  neigh- 
borhood. In  the  lawsuit  which  followed  he  was 
triumphantly  acquitted.  The  expense  of  this  suit 
was  met  by  the  people,  and  in  the  dismissal  of  the 
case,  which  was  for  assault  and  battery,  the  judge 
said  that  evidently  the  "young  man  had  made  the 
assault  and  the  teacher  had  applied  the  battery." 

In  1841  Dr.  Pearsons  began  his  professional 
studies  at  Woodstock,  Vermont,  at  that  time  one 
of  the  best  medical  schools  in  New  England.  Its 
professors  were  men  of  distinction  in  their  profession 
and  did  not  fail  to  arouse  the  ambition  of  their 
students.  When  Dr.  Alonzo  Clark,  one  of  these 
professors,  and  a  physician  of  large  practise  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  learned  that  Mr.  Pearsons  had 
decided  to  defer  graduation  a  year  in  order  that  he 
might  earn  money  for  his  necessary  expenses,  he 
offered  to  loan  the  hundred  dollars  needed,  provided 
he  would  remain  and  take  his  diploma.  He  con- 
sented, and  not  long  after  graduation  settled  in 
Chicopee,  Massachusetts,  where  as  partner  with  a 
successful  doctor,  he  earned  the  first  year  about 
eighteen  hundred  dollars,  paid  off  his  indebtedness 
and  laid  something  by  for  future  use.  This  partner- 

8 


BIRTH,  ANCESTRY  AND  EDUCATION 

ship  continued  for  three  years,  when  he  bought  a 
house,  married  Miss  Marietta  Chapin,  daughter  of 
Deacon  Giles  Chapin  of  Chicopee,  and  began  prac- 
tise by  himself.  This  practise  became  large  and 
profitable.  With  a  wife  of  unusual  beauty  of  per- 
son and  singular  charm  of  manner,  a  member  of  one 
of  the  old  families  of  the  state,  educated  in  Miss 
Willard's  Seminary  at  Troy,  New  York,  and  inter- 
ested in  everything  that  interested  her  husband  or 
promoted  the  welfare  of  the  community  or  the 
world,  the  young  physician  could  hardly  fail  to 
become  a  leading  figure  in  the  growing  manufactur- 
ing town.  He  was  appointed  health  officer,  made 
superintendent  of  schools,  and  as  a  leading  citizen 
arranged  a  course  of  lectures  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Cabot  Institute  in  which  such  men  as  Dr.  J.  B. 
C.  Smith  of  Boston,  Dr.  E.  H.  Chapin  of  New  York, 
Horace  Greeley,  Elihu  Burritt,  Theodore  Parker 
and  President  Hitchcock  of  Amherst  College  took 
part.  The  fee  paid  was  ten  dollars  a  night  and 
expenses.  The  profits  from  these  lecture  courses, 
which  continued  until  the  lecturers  began  to  demand 
larger  pay,  were  turned  over  to  a  Library  Associ- 
ation and  laid  the  foundation  of  the  Chicopee  Pub- 
lic Library,  one  of  the  best  of  its  kind  in  the  state. 
It  was  during  the  late  thirties  and  the  early  forties 
that  Mary  Lyon  was  trying  to  establish  a  school  for 
girls  at  South  Hadley.  One  of  the  homes  in  which 
she  was  a  welcome  visitor,  and  where  she  received 
sympathy  and  aid,  was  that  of  Deacon  Chapin. 
Dr.  Pearsons  was  deeply  interested  in  her  efforts, 

9 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

in  the  woman  herself,  in  the  character  and  aim  of 
her  school,  which  he  frequently  visited,  and  decided 
that  if  he  were  ever  able  he  would  do  what  he  could  to 
aid  such  schools  as  hers.  Neither  he  nor  Miss  Lyon 
at  that  time  dreamed  of  the  great  institution  which 
has  grown  up  in  that  little  country  village,  or  that 
the  country  physician  would  put  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  dollars  into  its  buildings  and  its  endow- 
ment. In  the  early  and  middle  forties  "Pa  Hawks,*' 
as  he  was  called,  a  retired  minister,  a  unique  per- 
sonality, drove  from  town  to  town  in  an  old  wagon 
drawn  by  a  slow-moving  horse,  begging  bedding, 
dishes,  corn,  potatoes,  almost  anything  for  the  girls 
in  the  new  school.  It  was  the  sacrifice,  the  heroism, 
and  the  enthusiasm  of  the  founders  of  what  is  now 
Mount  Holyoke  College  that  deepened  and  made 
permanent  Dr.  Pearsons'  interest  in  the  educa- 
tion of  poor  boys  and  girls. 

In  love  with  his  profession,  satisfied  with  the  posi- 
tion he  held  in  the  community,  at  home  in  the  best 
social  circles,  it  was  with  genuine  surprise,  as  he  has 
told  the  story,  that  one  day  he  listened  to  his  wife's 
question,  "Why  don't  we  sell  out  and  go  West?" 

"What?"  said  I.  "Give  up  this  fine  practise 
and  begin  again  ?"  "Yes,"  said  she.  "I  have  heard 
you  talk  with  that  man  from  Oregon"  (his  name  was 
Thurston,  he  represented  Oregon  in  Congress,  and 
used  to  spend  some  of  his  vacations  in  and  about 
Chicopee),  "and  I  have  made  up  my  mind  that  you 
were  made  for  a  business  man."  "Whatever  I  am, 
I  owe  to  my  wife,"  asserts  the  doctor.  "She  inter- 

10 


BIRTH,  ANCESTRY  AND  EDUCATION 

ested  me  in  everything  good.  To  her  belongs  the 
credit  for  all  that  I  have  done.  I  trusted  her  judg- 
ment, I  never  knew  it  to  fail.  I  always  told  her 
everything  and  always  followed  her  advice.  Within 
three  days  a  man  came  along  and  wanted  to  buy 
my  practise.  I  sold  it  to  him  as  quickly  as  you  can 
snap  your  thumb.  My  wife's  friends  were  greatly 
disturbed.  They  thought  it  was  a  foolish  move. 
But  my  wife  was  firm.  We  broke  up  housekeeping. 
I  sold  our  house  and  we  spent  six  months  in  visiting 
Europe.  It  was  our  first  trip  abroad.  My  wife 
loved  travel.  This  trip  did  both  of  us  a  great  deal 
of  good.  In  1851  we  made  our  first  visit  to  the 
West.  We  went  as  far  as  Janesville,  where  an  uncle 
and  aunt  lived.  The  Railway  stopped  at  Elgin. 
The  rest  of  the  way  we  went  by  stage.  The  roads 
were  poor  and  muddy  and  sometimes  we  forded  the 
rivers.  One  of  our  fellow-passengers  from  Beloit 
to  Janesville  was  a  loud-talking  swearing  sort  of 
a  man,  who  found  fault  with  everybody  and  every- 
thing. At  Beloit  I  saw  a  building  on  the  hill  above 
the  river  and  I  asked  what  that  building  was.  'Oh,' 
said  he,  '  that  is  a  college  which  some  cranks  from  the 
East  are  trying  to  build.'  All  the  way  to  Janesville 
he  kept  talking  against  the  colleges  and  I  defended 
them.  When  we  reached  our  destination  I  went  up 
to  him,  shook  my  fist  in  his  face,  and  said  I  am  coming 
out  West,  and  am  going  to  become  a  very  rich  man  and 
give  money  to  just  such  colleges  as  this."  And  Dr. 
Pearsons  always  adds,  "I  have  kept  my  promise." 
It  is  not  surprising  that  one  of  his  first  gifts  to 

11 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

colleges  should  have  been  to  Beloit.  It  is  surprising 
that  it  should  have  been  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  that  it  should  have  been  made  without 
solicitation  and  without  the  knowledge  of  any  one 
connected  with  the  institution.  At  that  time  the 
college  was  small,  hardly  able  to  meet  its  bills,  with 
no  prospect  of  the  rapid  expansion  which  has  brought 
it  into  a  leading  position  among  the  colleges  of  the 
country.  If  the  offer  of  one  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars by  an  unknown  man  from  Chicago,  came  as  an 
overwhelming  surprise  to  the  friends  of  Beloit,  there 
was  hardly  less  surprise  that  the  gift  was  made  on 
condition  that  its  trustees  and  friends  raise  another 
hundred  thousand  dollars  in  about  seven  weeks  to 
match  it.  Impossible  as  it  seemed  to  many  to  meet 
those  conditions,  they  were  met,  and  the  college 
placed  on  a  fair  financial  foundation.  There  was 
only  one  man  on  the  Board  of  Trustees  who  at  that 
time  had  any  personal  acquaintance  with  Dr. 
Pearsons,  and  to  enquirers  who  wondered  if  the 
generous  stranger  would  be  able  to  make  good  his 
promises,  he  was  permitted  to  give  assurances  which 
removed  every  doubt.  From  that  day  to  this  the 
relations  between  Dr.  Pearsons  and  Beloit  have 
been  of  the  most  intimate  character,  and  his  gifts 
to  the  college  instead  of  stopping  with  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  in  buildings  and  endowments  have 
nearly  or  quite  reached  the  sum  of  six  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars.  Thus  has  his  promise  to  give  money 
to  the  college  which  Eastern  cranks  were  building 
on  the  hill  been  redeemed. 

12 


n 

PREPARATION  FOR  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 


n 

PREPARATION  FOR  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 

IN  THE  period  between  the  sale  of  his  practise  in 
Chicopee  and  his  settlement  in  Chicago,  from 
1851  to  1860,  Dr.  Pearsons  was  preparing 
himself,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  for  his  busi- 
ness career  in  the  city  on  Lake  Michigan.  These 
preparatory  years,  as  Dr.  Pearsons  always  calls 
them,  were  business  years  also,  and  strenuous  years 
as  well.  They  were  years  spent  in  travel,  in  lectur- 
ing, in  the  purchase  and  sale  of  wood,  timber  and 
land,  and  in  study  not  only  of  the  special  subjects 
upon  which  he  addressed  the  people,  but  of  condi- 
tions, moral,  educational  and  financial,  prevailing 
in  different  sections  of  the  country. 

On  his  return  from  Europe,  a  trip  at  that  time 
not  often  made  by  persons  in  his  circumstances, 
Dr.  Calvin  Cutter  of  Boston,  famous  as  a  physician 
and  as  an  author  of  text-books  on  physiology,  anat- 
omy and  hygiene,  persuaded  him  to  go  South  and 
introduce  his  books  into  the  schools  and  higher 
institutions  of  learning  in  that  section  of  the  country. 
It  was  arranged  that  he  should  lecture  on  the  topics 
treated  in  the  books  he  had  to  sell  wherever  he  could 

15 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

find  an  opportunity.  With  headquarters  at  Nash- 
ville, Tennessee,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Pearsons  spent  the 
winters  of  1852  and  1853  in  traveling  over  Tennessee, 
Kentucky,  Alabama  and  Georgia,  the  Doctor  speak- 
ing in  nearly  all  of  the  colleges  in  those  states.  So 
successful  were  these  two  winters  in  the  South  that 
he  devoted  the  winters  of  1854  and  1855  to  lecturing 
in  the  State  of  Maine  on  his  own  account,  without 
regard  to  the  sale  of  books.  In  these  lectures  he 
sought  to  do  good  and  to  disseminate  knowledge. 
He  had  brought  home  a  fine  manikin  from  Europe, 
and  with  his  charts  possessed  an  apparatus  which 
could  not  fail  to  attract  attention.  To  these  lec- 
tures he  has  often  referred  as  furnishing  an  eminently 
satisfactory  experience  in  his  life.  In  the  winter 
of  1856  lectures  were  given  in  the  West,  and  in  1857 
a  course  was  given  in  Lawrence  University,  Apple- 
ton,  Wisconsin,  one  of  the  institutions  which  years 
afterward  received  aid  from  the  Doctor's  purse. 

Nowhere  had  he  any  difficulty  in  securing  an 
audience.  Those  who  have  heard  him  speak  from 
college  platforms  can  easily  understand  how  attrac- 
tive he  must  have  been  as  a  lecturer.  His  subject 
was  comparatively  new.  It  was  presented  as  one 
of  great  importance,  as  one  that  concerned  the 
health,  efficiency  and  comfort  of  every  living  being. 
It  was  fully  illustrated.  The  lecturer  had  the  fac- 
ulty, inborn  and  carefully  cultivated,  of  saying  in 
simple  terse  language  what  he  wanted  to  say  and 
no  more,  and  of  saying  what  his  audience  apparently 
wished  him  to  say.  A  plain  man,  like  Brutus,  he 

16 


PREPARATION  FOR  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 

spoke  straight  on,  and  used  words  which  no  one  had 
any  difficulty  in  understanding.  At  the  end  of  every 
lecture  those  who  had  heard  him  felt  that  they  had 
learned  something  worth  knowing,  had  listened  to 
a  man  who  had  said  something  for  them  to  remem- 
ber. He  was  attractive  in  personal  appearance, 
with  a  clear  penetrating  voice,  absolute  master  of 
himself,  with  a  fine  command  of  the  language  of 
common  life  and  a  power  to  employ  technical  terms 
so  that  common  people  could  catch  their  meaning. 
With  a  native  wit  which  burst  forth  spontaneously 
in  nearly  every  sentence  and  illuminated  every  sub- 
ject upon  which  he  touched,  it  is  only  what  we 
might  have  anticipated  that  he  should  be  as  success- 
ful as  a  lecturer  as  he  had  been  as  a  physician,  or  as 
in  later  years  he  would  prove  himself  to  be  as  a  man 
of  business.  During  these  years  he  made  lecturing 
a  business,  and  took  care  not  to  fail  in  it. 

It  was  no  easy  matter,  even  after  the  decision  had 
been  made  to  go  West,  to  find  just  the  place  for  a 
permanent  home.  A  visit  to  Janesville,  Wiscon- 
sin, had  made  it  clear  that  northern  Illinois  offered 
more  attractions  for  business  enterprise  than  any 
other  point  in  the  Middle  West.  But  the  decision 
to  settle  in  Chicago  was  not  reached  for  several 
years.  While  studying  the  country  and  making 
several  trips  a  year  between  the  East  and  West,  the 
Doctor  purchased  a  farm  in  Vermont  on  which  there 
was  a  fine  lot  of  wood  with  a  large  amount  of  timber 
on  it  ready  for  marketing.  He  knew  that  the  rail- 
road wanted  both  timber  and  wood  and  that,  as  the 
2  17 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

way  to  the  railroad  station  was  down  hill,  it  would 
be  easy  to  haul  them  to  the  station.  He  knew  that 
he  could  secure  Frenchmen  at  a  reasonable  price  to 
get  the  wood  ready  for  him,  and  he  persuaded  him- 
self that  after  disposing  of  the  wood  and  timber  he 
could  sell  the  farm  and  its  buildings  for  all  they  cost 
him.  His  father,  with  whom  he  was  staying  at  the 
time  of  his  purchase  of  the  farm  (for  which  he  paid 
cash),  was  much  surprised  at  what  his  venturesome 
son  had  done,  and  wondered  a  little  what  he  would 
do  next.  The  father  protested,  mildly,  against  the 
desecration  which  would  be  wrought  by  cutting  down 
"those  beautiful  trees"  which  had  stood  so  long 
and  were  so  dear  to  the  people  who  lived  in  the 
neighborhood.  The  protest  did  little  good.  The 
son  persisted  and  in  the  course  of  three  or  four  years 
sold  his  timber  and  four  thousand  cords  of  wood, 
obtained  the  money  for  it  and  then  disposed  of  the 
farm  and  the  buildings  on  it,  for  what  he  had  paid 
in  the  beginning.  He  was  led  to  undertake  this 
experiment  while  waiting  for  a  business  to  which 
he  could  devote  his  life,  partly  to  show  a  younger 
brother  what  could  be  done  in  this  direction  and  to 
encourage  him  to  go  into  business  himself.  That 
brother  was  an  apt  pupil  and  made  good  use  of  the 
instruction  he  received. 

But  four  years  of  lecturing  as  a  business  seemed  to 
the  Doctor  a  sufficiently  long  period  for  that  kind 
of  life.  True,  he  had  made  it  profitable.  He  saw 
that  he  could  secure  an  independent  fortune  were 
he  to  follow  it.  But  with  all  of  its  attractions  it  did 

18 


PREPARATION  FOR  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 

not  satisfy  him,  and  although  he  continued  to  lec- 
ture occasionally  for  two  years  longer,  here  and  there, 
and  especially  in  the  West,  he  ceased  to  look  upon 
lecturing  as  an  occupation  to  be  followed  through 
life. 

One  day,  when  in  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  the 
owner  of  14,000  acres  of  land  in  Champaign  and 
Livingston  Counties,  Illinois,  met  him  on  the  street, 
and  asked  him  if  he  would  undertake  the  sale  of 
these  lands  on  a  five  per  cent  commission.  The 
offer  had  come  as  if  by  chance  and  was  accepted. 
Mrs.  Pearsons  and  her  husband  now  felt  that  the 
time  had  come  for  them  to  settle  permanently  in 
the  West;  just  where,  they  left  the  future  to  decide, 
but  somewhere  in  Illinois.  For  more  than  a  year 
their  headquarters  were  at  Rochelle,  Ogle  County. 
Here  the  Doctor  owned  a  farm  of  several  hundred 
acres  from  which  in  a  single  season  he  cut  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  tons  of  hay  and  on  it  fed  seventy  head 
of  cattle  through  the  winter.  But  his  heart  was 
not  in  farming;  rather  in  selling  land  for  others  to 
occupy. 

First  of  all  he  sought  to  discover  the  best  way  to 
secure  a  perfect  title  to  land  that  had  been  sold, 
perhaps  more  than  once,  for  taxes.  Very  often  this 
was  a  difficult  task,  for  land  titles  had  become  very 
complicated.  Many  who  held  them  would  not  give 
them  up  on  reasonable  terms.  There  were  land 
sharpers  in  those  days  in  Illinois.  It  took  the  Doc- 
tor more  than  a  year  to  learn  their  crooked  ways; 
but  nature  had  endowed  him  with  keenness  of  per- 

19 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

ception  and  with  a  shrewdness  which  the  sharpers 
failed  to  take  into  account.  In  a  little  while  they 
soon  discovered  that  in  dealing  with  the  people  he 
was  more  than  their  match.  He  dealt  honestly. 
The  people  trusted  his  word.  The  titles  he  gave 
proved  to  be  good.  There  was  less  and  less  business 
for  men  who  did  not  intend  to  keep  their  word. 
Such  men  hated  him,  as  a  matter  of  course.  They 
spoke  against  him.  He  paid  no  attention  to  them, 
but  went  quietly  on  disposing  of  the  land  already 
entrusted  to  him,  and  becoming  agent  for  the  sale 
of  other  large  tracts  of  land  and  even  of  small  ones, 
if  asked  to  do  so. 

Pleasantly  situated,  as  he  had  been  in  Rochelle, 
living  sometimes  with  a  private  family,  sometimes 
on  his  farm,  he  saw  that  with  the  increase  in  his 
business,  it  would  be  for  his  advantage  to  be  in 
Chicago.  Some  idea  of  the  extent  of  that  business 
soon  after  his  settlement  in  that  city,  may  be  ob- 
tained from  the  fact  that  Michael  Sullivan,  "the 
land  king,"  made  him  his  agent  for  the  sale  of  40,000 
acres  and  Solomon  Sturgis  entrusted  him  with  the 
agency  for  the  sale  of  20,000  more.  Nor  were  these 
the  only  tracts  of  land  for  which  he  was  agent;  his 
growing  reputation  as  a  land  broker  and  his  extraor- 
dinary success  in  selling  lands  where  others  had 
failed  and  the  confidence  which  the  people  in  various 
sections  of  the  state  had  in  him  led  the  authorities 
of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company  to  offer 
him  the  agency  for  the  disposal  of  their  lands.  These 
lands  they  wished  to  sell  to  actual  settlers.  They 

20 


PREPARATION    FOR  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 

were  on  each  side  of  their  right  of  way  and  embraced 
every  alternate  section  and  extended  out  for  several 
miles.  Favorably  situated,  as  we  now  see  they 
were,  they  were  then  a  drug  on  the  market.  Exten- 
sive advertising  had  done  little  good.  People  pre- 
ferred to  settle  near  the  rivers,  in  regions  already 
partially  occupied.  Many  of  those  who  had  bought 
near  the  Road  were  complaining  of  its  unhealthful- 
ness.  They  suffered  from  fever,  ague  and  discour- 
agement, and  were  more  ready  to  offer  their  own 
lands  for  sale  than  to  persuade  others  to  purchase 
near  them.  Furthermore,  it  was  rumored  that  the 
title  to  the  railroad  lands  was  not  good.  In  such 
circumstances  there  was  little  encouragement  for  a 
man  like  Dr.  Pearsons,  whose  reputation  was  already 
made,  and  who  had  a  large  and  growing  business,  to 
become  an  agent  for  their  sale.  He  appreciated  the 
difficulties  which  stood  in  his  way,  but  did  not  shrink 
from  them.  He  knew  he  could  overcome  them. 
Having  satisfied  himself  that  these  railroad  titles 
were  flawless,  and  having  brought  capitalists  in  the 
East  to  his  way  of  thinking,  he  offered  these  lands 
for  sale,  and  as  he  did  so,  expressed  his  willingness 
to  loan  money  to  their  purchasers  rather  than  to 
purchasers  of  the  lands  at  their  side.  He  knew  that 
with  the  settlement  of  the  country  the  suffering  from 
fever  and  ague  and  from  homesickness  would  cease. 
His  frank,  open  ways  with  the  people,  his  reputation 
as  a  man  who  always  did  as  he  agreed,  who  was  ready 
to  relieve  a  man  from  his  land  if  its  buyer  found  it 
too  much  of  a  burden  for  him  to  carry,  rendered  it 

21 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

easy  for  him  to  succeed  where  many  others  had 
failed.  To  him,  more  than  anyone  else  in  his  gen- 
eration, is  the  disposal  of  these  lands  due,  and  their 
occupation,  by  industrious,  intelligent  and  prosper- 
ous communities. 

If  we  have  somewhat  anticipated  later  events  in 
Dr.  Pearsons'  life,  it  has  been  in  order  to  bring  out 
more  clearly  the  nature  of  that  preparation  through 
which  he  passed  before  entering  upon  a  business 
career  in  Chicago,  which  in  less  than  three  decades 
made  him  several  times  a  millionaire. 

When  he  came  to  the  City  his  reputation  as  a 
dealer  in  land  was  fairly  well  established.  Out  in 
the  State  he  was  better  known  than  by  business  men 
of  Chicago.  There  the  people  trusted  him  implicitly. 
Men  in  the  East  controlling  large  capital  had  given 
him  their  complete  confidence.  The  ^Etna  Life 
Insurance  Company  of  Hartford,  Connecticut,  had 
deemed  itself  fortunate  in  securing  such  a  man  to 
handle  its  funds.  With  a  business  as  large  as  his 
and  a  reputation  for  honesty  which  had  never  been 
questioned,  he  was  soon  reckoned  as  one  of  the  solid 
men  of  the  city.  He  had  mastered  the  details  of 
the  business  he  had  chosen  to  follow.  His  accounts 
at  the  banks  were  never  overdrawn.  Bills  were  al- 
ways paid  as  soon  as  presented.  He  had  few,  if  any, 
confidants,  but  it  was  noticed  that  his  transactions 
were  large  and  that  he  was  always  able  to  carry  them 
out. 

For  such  a  man  with  such  a  training,  with  such 
capitalists  behind  him  and  success  already  won,  it 

22 


PREPARATION  FOR  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 

is  easy  to  see  that  in  spite  of  the  political  unrest  in 
the  country,  it  would  be  easy  to  win  a  competency, 
and  even  a  large  fortune  in  Chicago.  He  himself 
has  always  said  that  everything  worked  for  his  advan- 
tage. He  had  met  with  nothing  to  discourage  him. 
Everything  that  he  had  touched  turned  into  money. 
True  his  personal  capital  was  small,  but  in  mental 
power,  in  business  ability  he  was  rich.  He  was  per- 
sistent also.  Never  for  a  moment  did  he  doubt 
his  complete  success.  He  did  not  undertake  to  do 
many  things,  but  the  one  thing  to  which  he  gave  his 
mind  he  made  sufficiently  important  to  tax  all  his 
energies. 

The  good  Providence,  which  had  led  him  hitherto, 
and  had  brought  him  to  Chicago,  he  felt  sure  would 
not  forsake  him  there. 

A  great  blessing  had  come  to  him  in  his  wife.  She 
never  doubted  the  wisdom  of  any  of  his  movements. 
They  had  in  fact  counselled  together  in  regard  to 
them  all.  She  was  the  silent  partner  in  all  her  hus- 
band's undertakings.  From  the  day  when  he  sold 
his  practise  in  Massachusetts  and  they  had  turned 
their  back  on  its  delightful  social  life,  through  years 
of  patient  waiting,  she  had  cheered  him  with  her 
presence  and  strengthened  him  by  her  approval. 
In  that  early  period  of  their  life  they  were  one  in 
thought  and  aim,  as  they  continued  to  be,  until  for 
her  the  end  came,  and  she  was  taken  home  to  enjoy 
her  well-earned  rest.  But  for  the  wife,  the  husband 
might  not  have  been  able  to  do  what  he  has  done  for 
the  benefit  of  his  fellowmen.  To  her  wisdom,  her 

23 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

sympathy,  her  love  and  her  support  in  weariness  and 
disappointment,  he  could  turn  for  refuge  and  strength. 
In  her  clear  vision,  he  never  failed  to  see  light.  "To 
her,"  he  has  said  again  and  again,  "I  owe  everything 
that  I  have  become.  The  fortune  which  I  have 
distributed  was  as  much  hers  as  mine.  She  helped 
me  to  earn  it  and  while  she  lived  she  helped  me  to 
distribute  it." 


Ill 

CHICAGO  IN  1860  AND  AFTER 


Ill 

CHICAGO  IN  1860  AND  AFTER 

THE  Census  of  1860  gave  Chicago  a  population 
slightly  in  excess  of  112,000.  At  that  time 
the  three  divisions  of  the  city,  North,  West 
and  South,  were  well  marked.  The  North  Side  was 
the  aristocratic  side.  It  had  been  first  settled,  and 
by  excellent  and  prosperous  families.  On  or  near 
the  shore  of  the  lake  dwelt  such  men  as  the  Honorable 
Isaac  N.  Arnold,  member  of  Congress,  and  Author 
of  a  Life  of  Lincoln,  Ezra  McCagg,  Judge  Mark 
Skinner,  Mahlon  D.  Ogden,  William  B.  Ogden,  by 
common  consent,  the  ablest,  most  prominent  and 
influential  citizen  of  Chicago,  E.  H.  Sheldon,  Walter 
L.  Newberry,  the  founder  of  the  Newberry  Library, 
E.  B.  Washburn,  Minister  of  the  United  States  to 
France,  Gurdori  S.  Hubbard,  the  Indian  Trader,  and 
E.  W.  Blatchford,  interested  in  every  plan  formed 
for  the  benefit  of  the  city.  Such  a  group  of  men — 
and  associated  with  them  were  many  others  whose 
names  cannot  be  here  mentioned — it  would  have 
been  difficult  at  that  time  to  have  found  in  any  other 
city  of  its  size  in  the  country.  The  residence  quar- 
ter on  the  North  Side  was  very  attractive.  Though 

27 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

the  houses  were  nearly  all  of  wood,  they  stood  back 
from  the  street  in  the  midst  of  ample  grounds  and 
were  surrounded  by  trees  which  furnished  abundant 
shade.  Houses  similar  to  these,  though  less  costly, 
were  scattered  along  the  Lake  Shore,  beyond  what 
is  now  Lincoln  Park,  out  into  Lake  View,  on  whose 
open  fields  the  German  contingent  in  the  city  was 
wont  to  make  merry  on  Sundays  and  holidays. 

Then,  as  now,  there  were  more  people  on  the  West 
Side  than  on  the  other  two  sides  combined.  But 
beyond  Ashland  Boulevard,  then  Reuben  Street, 
and  south  of  Adams  Street,  the  houses  were  few  and 
widely  scattered.  Here  and  there  manufacturing 
establishments  had  begun  to  spring  up.  The  popu- 
lation was  chiefly  of  the  industrial  class.  It  was 
intelligent,  energetic  and  frugal.  Not  a  few  men  of 
wealth  belonged  to  it  and  lived  in  its  midst.  Be- 
yond Twenty-second  Street  on  the  South  Side,  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  houses  on  Cottage  Grove 
Avenue,  the  territory  was  largely  unoccupied.  The 
Stock  Yards  were  about  one  half  mile  west  of  Camp 
Douglass,  where  Confederate  prisoners  were  kept 
during  the  war.  This  camp  was  at  the  corner  of 
Thirty-first  Street  and  Cottage  Grove  Avenue.  In 
1860  and  for  some  years  afterward,  Chicago  pre- 
sented the  appearance,  to  a  stranger,  of  an  over- 
grown country  village,  with  here  and  there  a  street 
which  reminded  one  of  a  city. 

Among  the  dealers  in  real  estate  Peter  Page  and 
the  Bowen  Brothers  were  prominent.  Potter  Palmer 
with  Marshall  Field  and  L.  Z.  Leiter,  as  partners, 

28 


CHICAGO  IN  1860  AND  AFTER 

C.  B.  and  J.  V.  Far  well,  controlled  the  dry-goods 
business.  J.  W.  Doane,  G.  S.  Hubbard,  E.  W. 
Blatchford,  Cyrus  H.  McCormick,  T.  W.  Harvey 
and  scores  of  others  hardly  less  prominent  in  different 
lines  of  business,  were  building  up  fortunes  for  them- 
selves, and  at  the  same  time  doing  what  they  could 
to  build  up  the  city.  Among  the  physicians,  Dr. 
N.  S.  Davis  was  a  leader;  Emory  A.  Storrs  stood  at 
the  head  of  the  Bar.  Solomon  Smith,  W.  F.  Cool- 
baugh,  Chauncy  M.  Blair  and  George  Smith,  who 
died  in  London  only  a  few  years  ago  leaving  a  very 
large  fortune,  were  leading  bankers.  The  late  Chief 
Justice  Melville  W.  Fuller  was  a  rising  young  lawyer. 
Van  H.  Higgins,  Norman  B.  Judd,  Jerome  Beecher, 
Jacob  Beidler,  Peter  Schuttler,  the  wagon  maker, 
B.  W.  Raymond,  L.  D.  Boone,  T.  M.  Avery,  H.  Z. 
Culver,  Deacon  Philo  Carpenter,  Deacon  William 
Bross,  afterwards  Lieutenant  Governor  of  Illinois, 
in  addition  to  those  above  mentioned,  were  some  of 
the  men  with  whom  during  his  early  years  in  Chicago, 
Dr.  Pearsons  was  brought  into  contact.  To  say 
that  in  ability,  he  compared  favorably  with  the  best 
of  them,  is  not  going  beyond  the  truth.  For  a  young 
city  the  pulpit,  too,  had  fully  its  share  of  fame.  Dr. 
W.  W.  Everts  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  Dr.  Z.  M. 
Humphrey  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  Dr. 
R.  W.  Patterson  of  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church, 
Drs.  T.  M.  Eddy  and  I.  H.  Tiffany  of  the  Methodist 
Church,  Dr.  W.  W.  Patton  of  the  First  Congrega- 
tional Church,  Dr.  W.  H.  Ryder  of  St.  Paul's  Uni- 
versalist  Church,  Dr.  Robert  Collyer  of  Unity  Church 

29 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

were  men  who  were  able  to  fill  any  pulpit  in  the  land. 
Without  exception  they  were  staunch  defenders  of 
the  Union  and  throughout  the  war  were  untiring  in 
their  efforts  to  support  the  government  and  provide 
for  the  wants  of  the  soldiers.  Not  less  outspoken 
than  they  or  less  earnest  in  their  service  were  Dr. 
Robert  H.  Clarkson  of  St.  James'  Episcopal  Church 
and  Father  Dennis  Dunne  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.  From  his  own  minister,  Dr.  Humphrey, 
and  from  each  of  the  others,  as  he  listened  to  them 
from  time  to  time,  Dr.  Pearsons  heard  words  which 
could  not  fail  to  deepen  his  sense  of  the  value  of  an 
education  and  his  conviction  that  opportunities  for 
acquiring  it  should  be  open  to  the  children  of  the 
poorest  families  in  the  country. 

The  leading  newspaper  was  The  Tribune,  owned  in 
part  but  edited  and  controlled  by  Joseph  Medill, 
whose  instinct  for  journalism  was  inborn,  and  whose 
great  ability  was  always  used  for  what  he  conceived 
to  be  right.  Its  competitor,  The  Times,  brilliant 
and  somewhat  unscrupulous,  was  edited  and  owned 
by  William  F.  Story,  a  man  of  rare  talent,  and  greatly 
loved  by  those  who  knew  him  intimately.  During 
the  war  this  paper  was  not  always  loyal  to  the  Gov- 
ernment. The  evening  journals  were  of  less  impor- 
tance, though  they  filled  a  large  place  in  the  estima- 
tion of  the  public.  Outside  their  respective  denom- 
inations, the  religious  papers  were  little  known  and 
their  circulation  was  small.  The  business  of  the 
city  was  ranged  around  the  Court  House,  which 
stood  on  the  present  site  of  the  City  Hall,  and  occu- 

30 


CHICAGO  IN   1860  AND  AFTER 

pied  an  entire  block.  It  was  not  till  after  the  war, 
although  the  city  rapidly  increased  in  size  during 
the  period  of  hostilities,  that  a  new  and  better  Chi- 
cago began  to  show  itself.  This  new  Chicago,  which 
the  Census  of  1870  reported  as  having  a  population 
of  293,000,  was  in  its  business  section,  as  well  as  in 
its  North  Side  residence  quarter,  almost  wholly 
swept  away  by  the  fire  of  1871.  In  the  new  Chicago, 
which  gradually  took  the  place  of  the  one  which  had 
been  destroyed,  its  builders  had  commendable  pride, 
though  many  years  passed  before  all  the  marks 
which  the  tornado  of  fire  had  left  were  removed. 
That  third  Chicago  is  now  giving  place  to  a  city 
whose  hotels,  immense  stores,  sky-scrapers,  office 
buildings,  railway-stations  and  palatial  homes  call 
forth  the  admiration  of  every  visitor.  That  a  retail 
store,  and  a  dry-goods  store  at  that,  should  occupy 
in  the  first  decade  of  the  new  century,  the  entire 
front  on  State  Street,  between  Washington  and 
Randolph  Streets  and  nearly  as  much  space  on  the 
Wabash  Avenue  front  had  hardly  entered  the  mind 
of  Marshall  Field,  the  great  merchant,  or  of  any  of 
his  partners  in  the  seventies  or  the  eighties.  Nor 
had  William  Deering  or  Cyrus  H.  McCormick  or 
P.  D.  Armour  or  Gustavus  A.  Swift  dreamed  of  a 
business  like  that  which  their  successors  now  control. 
But  even  then  the  stress  of  business  was  severe  and 
the  problems  which  were  daily  coming  up  for  solu- 
tion were  perplexing.  That  so  many  of  them  were 
solved  satisfactorily  may  well  excite  wonder. 

Lake  Street  was  the  center  of  the  dry-goods  trade 

31 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

of  the  city.  Dearborn  Street,  between  Lake  and 
Madison  Streets,  was  the  center  of  the  banking 
business.  Until  1864,  the  Second  Baptist  Church 
worshipped  in  a  building  which  stood  on  the  South 
East  corner  of  La  Salle  and  Washington  Street,  a 
corner  afterwards  occupied  by  the  Board  of  Trade. 
The  Second  Presbyterian  Church  was  at  the  corner 
of  Wabash  Avenue  and  Randolph  Street,  and  the 
First  Baptist  Church  and  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  were  not  far  from  each  other  on  Wabash 
Avenue  near  Van  Buren  Street. 

Where  the  Auditorium  Hotel  now  stands  was  a 
row  of  marble  fronts,  three  stories  in  height,  with 
a  basement  for  kitchen  and  dining  room,  known  as 
the  Marble  Terrace,  in  which  Tuthill  King,  S.  C. 
Griggs,  J.  W.  Peck,  J.  W.  Scammon  and  ex-Governor 
Bross  had  their  homes.  This  row  of  houses  was 
destroyed  in  the  fire  of  1871  and  was  never  fully 
rebuilt. 

Important  as  Chicago  was  in  1860  as  a  business 
center,  it  was  then  yet  little  more  than  a  straggling 
western  town.  Since  the  panic  of  1857  there  had 
not  been  much  building.  The  prevailing  architec- 
ture, save  in  a  few  residence  quarters,  was  unattrac- 
tive. The  hotels  were  the  most  imposing  buildings 
in  the  city.  As  houses  of  entertainment,  few  better 
could  be  found  anywhere.  Among  them  the  Sher- 
man House,  Tremont,  Richmond  and  Metropolitan 
deserve  mention. 

The  Wigwam,  in  which  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
nominated  for  the  Presidency,  stood  on  Market 


CHICAGO  IN  1860  AND  AFTER 

Street  between  Randolph  and  Washington  Streets. 
In  it  the  Honorable  W.  M.  Evarts  of  New  York  City, 
presented  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency  the  name 
of  the  Honorable  William  H.  Seward  of  New  York, 
whose  nomination  the  East  had  taken  for  granted. 
He  was  followed  by  the  Honorable  Norman  B.  Judd 
of  Chicago,  who  presented  the  name  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln of  Illinois.  There  were  no  nominating  speeches 
like  those  to  which  we  are  now  accustomed.  But 
feeling  was  intense  and  often  very  bitter.  Outside 
his  own  state  Lincoln  was  little  known,  while  Seward 
was  known  and  honored  throughout  the  whole  coun- 
try. The  nomination  of  Lincoln  added  to  the  inter- 
est which  the  East  had  begun  to  take  in  Chicago, 
and  drew  attention  to  it  as  a  new  center  for  the 
creation  and  expression  of  public  opinion.  Through- 
out the  war  Chicago  was  faithful  to  the  cause  of  the 
Union,  not  only  in  the  raising  and  equipment  of  sol- 
diers, but  in  providing  for  their  comfort  in  field  and 
hospital.  It  was  in  this  city  that  immense  fairs  were 
held  in  the  interest  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  in 
which  such  women  as  Mrs.  M.  D.  Hoge  and  Mrs. 
Mary  Livermore  were  prominent  and  movements 
originated  which  contributed  not  a  little  to  the 
efficiency  of  our  armies. 

But  while  outwardly  patriotic  and  apparently 
ready  to  submit  to  any  sacrifice  for  the  honor  of  the 
flag,  the  city  as  early  as  1859  was  divided  into  parties 
which  took  opposite  sides  on  the  questions  which 
led  to  the  Civil  War.  Native  Americans,  coming 
from  places  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line,  were 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

for  freedom  and  the  Union,  at  whatever  cost.  Sym- 
pathizing with  them  were  the  Germans  and  the 
Scandinavians,  an  important  element  in  the  city, 
and  a  majority  of  the  Irish.  Men  born  and  educated 
in  the  South,  and  the  number  was  quite  large,  fa- 
vored slavery  and  the  doctrine  of  States  Rights,  and 
were  willing  to  permit  secession  as  a  last  resort. 
These  honest  differences  of  opinion  and  the  discus- 
sions to  which  they  gave  rise,  help  to  make  Chicago 
an  interesting  place  in  which  to  live,  even  if  its  busi- 
ness interests  were  sometimes  threatened. 


IV 

BUSINESS  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 


IV 
BUSINESS  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 

IT  WAS  a  rainy  morning  in  April,  1860,  when  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  Pearsons  came  to  Chicago  to  live. 
They  had  no  home  of  their  own  to  which  they 
might  go.    There  were  no  friends  or  relatives  to  bid 
them  welcome.    Their  entrance  into  the  city  excited 
little  interest,  either  on  the  part  of  men  of  wealth  or 
of  the  general  public.    As  capital,  the  Doctor  brought 
five  thousand  dollars  in  cash  in  his  handbag  and 
deeds  to  farms  he  owned  out  in  the  state. 

A  slight  acquaintance  with  Mr.  William  H.  Carter, 
who  kept  a  boarding-house  at  46  Van  Buren  Street, 
led  him  thither.  Here  board  was  secured  for  him- 
self and  wife  at  ten  dollars  a  week.  Here  for  several 
years  they  had  their  home.  A  desk  for  business 
was  hired  in  the  office  of  Harvey  B.  Hurd  and  Henry 
Booth,  116  Randolph  Street,  for  twenty-five  dollars 
a  year.  The  second  year  the  rent  was  doubled,  and 
the  third,  on  the  ground  of  the  Doctor's  growing 
business,  it  was  trebled.  The  Doctor  decided  that 
if  he  must  pay  seventy-five  dollars  a  year  for  a  desk 
in  an  office  not  his  own,  it  would  be  better  for  him 
to  have  an  office  which  he  could  control.  One  was 

37 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

found  at  a  moderate  rent  not  far  from  the  one  he  had 
occupied.  It  was  in  the  Methodist  Church  Block. 
This  office  he  cared  for  himself  and  remained  in  it 
for  several  years.  It  was  always  in  good  order. 

When  Mr.  Carter,  following  the  example  of 
Messrs.  Hurd  and  Booth,  raised  the  price  of  board 
beyond  what  Dr.  Pearsons  deemed  a  reasonable 
figure,  he  determined  to  have  a  house  and  home  of 
his  own.  He  found  no  difficulty  in  exchanging  land 
in  the  country  for  48  Van  Buren  Street,  where  he 
lived  many  years.  The  house  was  well  situated.  It 
was  not  far  from  the  business  center  of  the  city,  not 
far  from  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  at  which 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Pearsons  were  constant  attendants. 
As  the  city  grew,  however,  this  house  became  less 
and  less  desirable  as  a  place  of  residence;  and  after 
disposing  of  it,  its  occupants  went  to  the  Palmer 
House,  where  they  continued  to  reside  for  sixteen 
or  seventeen  years,  or  until  their  removal  in  1885 
to  Hinsdale,  a  suburb  sixteen  miles  from  the  city. 

From  a  business  point  of  view  to  most  men  the 
outlook  in  1860  would  not  have  appeared  altogether 
promising.  At  that  time  few  would  have  thought  it 
possible  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  large  fortune  by 
the  sale  of  land  in  neglected  sections  of  the  state. 

Hay,  when  delivered,  was  bringing  one  dollar  and 
fifty  cents  a  ton.  Oats  were  selling  at  twelve  and 
one  half  cents  a  bushel.  Corn  brought  only  ten 
cents  a  bushel.  What  inducement  could  there  be  to 
buy  land  in  Illinois?  Neither  farming  nor  stock- 
raising  at  prevailing  prices  offered  any  great  attrac- 

88 


BUSINESS  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 

tion  to  settlers.  With  an  energy  that  seemed  inex- 
haustible, and  an  optimism  that  discouragements 
could  not  weaken,  Dr.  Pearsons  began  and  continued 
to  persuade  men  and  women  from  the  East,  native 
Americans,  not  a  few  of  whom  were  of  Scotch,  Irish 
or  German  descent,  to  make  their  homes  in  Illinois. 
Of  failure  there  was  no  thought.  Sales  of  land  were 
made  in  lots  of  forty,  eighty,  one  hundred  and 
twenty,  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  one  quarter 
of  the  price  in  cash,  the  remainder  in  one,  two,  three 
years  with  interest  at  six  per  cent  although  the 
regular  rate  was  ten  per  cent  or  more.  Usually  he 
was  ready  to  loan  money  on  favorable  terms  for 
improvements,  and  thus  was  able  to  secure  one  fee 
for  the  sale  of  the  land,  and  another  for  lending 
money  with  which  to  improve  it. 

When  he  settled  in  Chicago  he  was  forty  years  old. 
His  faculties  were  well  developed  and  thoroughly 
disciplined.  Rugged  strength  and  a  tenacious  pur- 
pose had  come  to  him  through  his  early  struggles 
and  continued  self-denials  for  an  education.  As  a 
physician  he  had  studied  people  and  learned  some- 
thing of  the  motives  by  which  they  are  influenced. 
Interest  in  Mary  Lyon  and  her  work  for  young 
women,  as  well  as  personal  efforts  to  improve  the 
sanitary,  the  intellectual  and  the  moral  conditions 
of  the  village  in  which  he  had  lived,  had  introduced 
an  altruistic  element  into  his  character  which  years 
afterward  became  masterful.  Travel  abroad  had 
given  him  a  glimpse  of  old-world  conditions,  and 
travel  in  his  own  country  had  prepared  him  for  the 

39 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

business  career  upon  which  he  was  now  entering. 
He  knew  men  East  and  West,  North  and  South. 
Tall,  straight  as  an  arrow,  with  no  superfluous  flesh, 
with  a  keen  black  eye,  which  seemed  to  penetrate 
to  the  depths  of  one's  nature  at  a  glance,  with  a 
dignity  of  movement  and  manner  which  indicated 
complete  confidence  in  himself,  with  a  frankness  and 
even  bluntness  of  expression  which  spoke  of  honesty 
of  purpose  and  a  determination  to  deal  fairly  with 
all  who  came  to  him,  he  began  in  Chicago  that 
struggle  for  wealth  which  in  thirty  years  brought 
about  results  with  which  the  world  is  familiar. 

Whatever  others  may  have  thought,  the  man  and 
the  times,  were  suited  to  each  other.  The  oppor- 
tunities for  business  which  the  city  and  state  afforded 
with  the  difficulties  connected  with  them,  were  just 
what  a  person  with  Dr.  Pearsons'  temperament  and 
character  needed  to  stimulate  him  in  the  highest 
degree  and  to  bring  out  all  that  was  best  in  him.  To 
his  credit  it  should  be  said  that  if  the  money-making 
instinct  was  strong  in  him,  equally  strong  was  the 
purpose  that  the  gains  which  came  to  him  should 
sometime  be  devoted  to  the  cause  of  Christian 
education. 

The  years  were  strenuous,  the  earlier  ones  in  par- 
ticular. For  months  at  a  time,  Monday  morning 
would  find  the  Doctor  at  a  railway  station,  carpet- 
bag in  hand,  ready  for  a  trip  to  the  country.  He 
had  carefully  arranged  his  route.  He  knew  where 
he  would  stop  at  night,  where  he  would  get  each 
meal.  It  was  not  at  every  house  one  would  care  to 

40 


BUSINESS  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 

sleep  or  eat.  Ordinarily  the  Doctor  would  take 
from  four  to  six  men  with  him  to  see  the  land  he 
was  offering  for  sale.  These  men  were  all  prospec- 
tive buyers.  But  the  Doctor  did  not  care  to  sell 
until  purchasers  had  been  on  the  land  he  wished 
them  to  buy.  While  looking  over  the  different 
tracts  of  land,  one  would  say,  "I  will  take  this  sec- 
tion, or  a  part  of  it,"  another  would  choose  another 
section,  and  a  third  and  a  fourth  each,  another, 
till  the  entire  tract,  sometimes  containing  several 
thousand  acres,  was  sold.  On  one  of  the  best  of 
these  days  more  than  five  thousand  acres  passed 
through  his  hands.  In  this  way  the  foundations  of 
many  villages  were  laid,  which  afterwards  grew  into 
large  and  prosperous  towns.  Was  this  kind  of  work 
profitable?  Ask  the  Doctor,  and  he  will  tell  you  that 
his  five  per  cent  commission  on  the  sale  of  land 
brought  him  very  large  returns.  Did  all  of  this 
remain  in  his  hands?  By  no  means.  Some  of  it 
was  expended  in  order  that  more  might  be  made. 
Apart  from  the  cost  of  selling,  which  was  deducted 
from  his  profits,  he  was  constantly  asked  for  special 
gifts.  Men  would  say,  "We  are  Methodists,"  or, 
"We  are  Baptists"  or " Presbyterians,  and  we  must 
settle  where  we  can  have  schoolhouses  or  a  church, 
where  we  can  feel  at  home,  or  a  library,"  and  then 
the  Doctor  would  reply,  "Get  together  just  such  a 
company  as  you  want,  select  the  place  where  you 
want  to  live,  and  I  will  furnish  the  land  at  so  much 
an  acre.  I  will  loan  you  so  much  on  it  and  I  will 
give  one  hundred,  two  hundred,  perhaps  three  hun- 

41 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

dred  dollars  for  your  schoolhouse,  church  or  library." 
Though  the  Doctor  believed  in  being  generous  with 
the  people  who  bought  his  land,  he  disclaimed  any 
idea  of  benevolence  in  gifts  like  those  just  men- 
tioned. They  were  investments  from  which  he  looked 
for  large  returns  in  money.  All  the  same,  they  were 
gifts,  and  their  frequency,  and  their  amount  had  a 
share  in  preparing  him  for  the  time  when  the  making 
of  money  would  cease  and  the  distribution  of  it 
became  the  business  of  his  life. 

It  was  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  state  or  a. little 
to  the  east  of  the  center  that  the  larger  portion  of 
the  land  Dr.  Pearsons  had  for  sale  was  located. 
Prior  to  his  coming  to  Illinois  settlers  had  shunned, 
as  undesirable,  lands  very  far  east  of  the  line  of  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad,  or  even  adjoining  it.  The 
Doctor  saw  very  soon  that  if  he  would  succeed  in  his 
business,  he  must  convince  people  that  just  as  good 
homes  could  be  made  on  the  lands  he  had  for  sale  as 
those  already  occupied  farther  West.  With  the  re- 
sources at  his  command  he  soon  effected  an  entire 
change  of  feeling  in  the  minds  of  incoming  settlers. 

Sundays  were  spent  in  Chicago.  They  were 
happy,  restful  days.  Mornings  and  evenings,  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  Pearsons  would  be  in  their  pew  in  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church.  At  home  the  Doctor  would 
learn  from  his  wife  what  the  women  of  the  church  were 
trying  to  do  for  the  needy,  and  through  her,  money 
would  find  its  way  to  them  in  ever-enlarging  streams 
of  benevolence.  The  first  year  of  his  life  in  Chicago 
saw  him  a  teacher  in  the  Railroad  Mission  established 

42 


BUSINESS  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 

by  Father  Kent,  and  under  the  care  of  the  First  Pres- 
byterian Church;  he  was  soon  deeply  interested 
in  it  and  glad  to  give  both  time  and  money  to  its 
support.  Patriotic  as  a  man  born  in  Vermont  and 
living  so  long  in  Massachusetts  could  hardly  fail  to 
be,  in  spite  of  the  political  excitement  of  the  times, 
he  gave  himself  wholly  to  business.  Perhaps,  like 
many  others,  he  doubted  at  first  if  the  South  would 
take  up  arms  against  the  North.  Were  war  to 
break  out,  he  could  not  believe  it  would  be  serious 
or  last  long.  He  felt,  too,  that  in  bringing  the  right 
kind  of  men  into  the  State  as  permanent  residents,  he 
was  adding  strength  to  the  cause  of  freedom. 

More  and  more  his  office  became  the  center  of 
important  money  transactions.  Profits  from  his 
regular  business  and  from  increasingly  large  invest- 
ments drew  the  attention  of  moneyed  men  to  him. 
As  has  been  said,  he  not  only  sold  land,  but  also 
loaned  money  on  it  after  its  sale.  For  many  years 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  were  paid  out  by 
him  for  first  mortgages  and  in  a  majority  of  instances 
on  land  which  he  himself  had  sold.  Nor  need  any- 
one be  surprised  at  the  amount  of  the  loans  he  made, 
for  he  sold  not  less  than  two  hundred  thousand 
acres  of  land  in  Illinois  alone.  In  the  decade  from 
1860  to  1870  Dr.  Pearsons  became  a  rich  man.  He 
was  recognized  as  such  in  banking  circles  and  in  the 
commercial  circles  of  the  city.  His  advice  was 
sought  in  matters  pertaining  to  the  city  as  the 
advice  of  one  of  its  leading  citizens.  When  a  new 
bank  was  formed,  it  was  a  good  advertisement  for 

43 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

it,  if  the  name  of  Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons  could  be  found 
in  the  list  of  its  stockholders.  It  was  equally  valu- 
able for  the  Company  which  was  seeking  to  develop 
the  South  Side  City  Railway  System.  A  man  of 
the  strictest  integrity,  of  unusual  force  of  charac- 
ter, of  rare  judgment  in  all  financial  matters,  he 
easily  had  found  a  place  among  the  financial  leaders 
of  the  city. 

It  was  in  the  late  sixties  that  Dr.  Pearsons  began 
to  buy  pine  lands  in  Michigan.  Business  friends 
shook  their  heads,  warned  him  against  the  risks  he 
was  taking,  said  that  there  was  timber  enough  in 
Michigan  to  last  five  hundred  years,  and  that  any 
man  buying  these  lands  would  surely  lose  all  of  the 
money  he  put  into  them.  The  Doctor  persisted,  as 
he  usually  did  when  he  made  up  his  mind  to  do  any- 
thing, and  kept  on  buying  and  paying  cash  for  his 
purchases,  until  he  had  become  the  owner  of  six- 
teen thousand  acres  of  some  of  the  best  timber  land 
in  the  state.  He,  himself,  superintended  the  cutting 
of  the  logs,  and  often  sold  them  himself.  The  Fire 
of  1871  increased  the  demand  for  timber,  and  it  was 
fortunate  for  him,  that  when  twelve  of  his  houses 
on  the  North  Side  were  burned,  he  could  exchange 
his  lumber  for  their  reconstruction.  The  fire 
brought  him  his  share  of  loss,  although  he  suffered 
less  than  many  others,  for  the  larger  part  of  his 
houses  were  on  the  South  Side.  But  he  was  one  of 
the  men  who  with  courage  went  through  those  terri- 
ble days  of  devastation  and  suffering,  and  gave  him- 
self earnestly  and  enthusiastically  to  the  work  of 

44 


BUSINESS  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 

reconstruction.  From  him  no  expression  of  doubt 
was  ever  heard  as  to  the  power  of  the  city  to  rise 
from  its  ashes  with  new  strength  and  a  more  pros- 
perous business  life  than  it  had  yet  seen. 

A  broker  in  land,  a  lender  of  money,  director  in 
several  banks,  director  in  the  South  Side  City  Rail- 
way Company,  representative  of  the  JStna  Life 
Insurance  Company  of  Hartford,  Connecticut,  and 
of  other  men's  interests  till  1877,  in  that  year  he 
laid  aside  the  obligations  he  had  hitherto  assumed 
for  others,  and  gave  himself  wholly  to  his  own  inter- 
ests. The  business  which  he  had  built  up,  he  turned 
over  to  two  of  his  clerks,  Mr.  H.  A.  Pearsons,  a 
nephew,  and  Mr.  O.  B.  Taft,  young  men  of  fine 
business  ability  who  first,  as  Pearsons  and  Taft, 
and  later  as  the  Pearsons-Taft  Land  Credit  Com- 
pany, have  continued  and  enlarged  that  business, 
until  it  is  now  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  sound- 
est land  companies  in  the  United  States. 


45 


V 

BUSINESS  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO— Continued 


V 

BUSINESS  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO— Continued 

FOR  the  twelve  years  following  1877,  Dr.  Pear- 
sons continued  in  business  for  himself  only. 
He  bought  and  sold  in  his  own  name,  land, 
houses,  wood,  timber.  A  large  depositor  in  the 
banks,  he  rarely  or  never  borrowed  from  them  or 
did  anything  that  in  any  way  could  shake  his  credit. 
A  great  deal  of  his  property  was  in  such  shape  that 
he  could  get  its  value  in  cash  at  short  notice.  Such 
bankers  as  Solomon  Smith  and  Chauncy  Blair  were 
his  close  friends.  Daniel  A.  Jones  of  the  Board  of 
Trade  was  another  man  with  whom,  in  the  church 
as  well  as  in  business,  he  was  intimately  associated, 
and  of  whose  estate  of  four  million  dollars,  he  was 
one  of  the  executors.  From  this  estate  he  secured 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the  Presbyterian 
Hospital,  which  under  the  influence  of  Drs.  J.  P. 
Ross  and  E.  A.  Hamill  he  had  been  instrumental  in 
founding.  To  this  hospital  he  himself  has  given  not 
far  from  another  hundred  thousand  dollars,  in  addi- 
tion to  personal  service  the  value  of  which  cannot 
be  estimated.  Without  this  service  it  is  doubtful 
if  the  hospital  could  have  been  established  as  early 
4  49 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

as  1873,  certainly  not  with  anything  like  its  finan- 
cial strength  and  magnificent  equipment. 

Many  of  the  men  with  whom  he  was  associated 
in  the  management  of  the  South  Side  Railway  were 
men  of  very  strong  personality.  S.  B.  Cobb,  Jerome 
Beecher,  whose  names  are  borne  by  some  of  the 
buildings  on  the  campus  of  the  University  of  Chi- 
cago, Jacob  Rosenberg,  S.  W.  Allerton,  were  men  of 
wealth  and  of  decided  convictions  as  to  the  way 
in  which  business  should  be  conducted.  Dr.  Pear- 
sons was  equally  strong  in  his  convictions.  These 
were  the  men  who  advocated  the  use  of  the  cable  in 
place  of  horses,  and  later  were  willing  to  replace 
the  cable  with  electricity.  Conservative  as  they 
all  were,  they  did  not  hesitate  to  spend  money  for 
improvements  which  would  reduce  the  cost  of  oper- 
ation, furnish  better  service  to  the  public  and  increase 
their  own  profits. 

As  a  large  owner  of  real  estate  Dr.  Pearsons  was 
brought  in  close  relations  with  real  estate  men,  and 
from  them  learned  at  first  hand  when  to  buy  and 
when  to  sell.  But  neither  he  nor  any  of  the  men  in 
whose  judgment  he  confided,  had  any  true  idea  of 
the  changes  which  would  take  place  in  the  values 
of  land  within  the  city  limits,  or  in  its  outlying 
districts.  They  failed  to  perceive  the  full  extent 
of  the  change  which  would  be  wrought  in  trans- 
portation by  the  use  of  electricity  instead  of  the 
cable,  by  the  building  of  elevated  roads  or  by  increas- 
ing facilities  for  suburban  travel.  They  knew  that 
the  changes  wrought  by  these  means  would  be 

50 


BUSINESS  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 

very  great  and  of  immense  importance,  but  their 
full  significance  when  they  were  made,  no  one  seems 
to  have  grasped.  They  would  have  scouted  the 
idea  that  land  would  ever  bring  within  the  loop  the 
price  now  asked  for  it.  Nor  did  they  foresee  the 
demand  which  would  be  made  and  continue  to  be 
made  for  land  for  great  business  establishments 
within  or  near  the  limits  of  the  city. 

Though  not  in  competition  with  any  of  the 
real  estate  men  of  the  city,  at  the  head  of  a  busi- 
ness whose  interests  were  out  in  the  state  rather 
than  in  the  city,  he  was  yet  brought  by  the  force  of 
his  character  and  by  the  success  of  the  business 
which  he  managed  into  close  relations  with  the  lead- 
ing business-men  of  the  city,  and  as  a  man  of  wealth 
was  associated  with  them  by  the  public.  That  he 
was  influenced  by  the  remarkable  men  whose  names 
have  been  given  in  the  preceding  chapter  and  that 
in  his  turn  he  influenced  them,  is  certainly  true.  In 
any  other  city  and  among  other  men  he  might  not 
have  become  the  man  he  was  or  have  attained  the 
prominence  he  did,  as  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  finan- 
cial affairs  of  the  city. 

Great  as  were  the  interests  of  the  later  years  of 
his  business  life,  Dr.  Pearsons  did  not  allow  himself, 
under  the  pressure  of  the  surprising  changes  then 
going  forward,  to  forget  the  social,  intellectual  and 
refining  interests  of  the  city.  He  had  a  share,  and 
no  small  one,  in  organizing  the  Society  of  the  Sons 
of  Vermont,  was  a  constant  attendant  at  its  meet- 
ings, over  which  he  sometimes  presided  and  not 

51 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

infrequently  addressed.  He  was  interested  also 
in  the  work  of  the  Historical  Society,  the  Academy 
of  Sciences  and  the  Art  Institute.  He  was  one  of 
the  men  to  whom  it  was  possible  to  go  for  advice 
and  aid  in  anything  which  really  concerned  the  wel- 
fare of  the  city. 

As  Chairman  for  fifteen  years  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  he  took 
the  lead  with  such  able  helpers  as  Messrs.  Swift 
and  Sherwood  in  paying  the  debt  of  eighty-two 
thousand  dollars  resting  on  the  Society.  Toward 
that  debt,  first  and  last,  he  himself  contributed  not 
less  than  fifteen  thousand  dollars  to  say  nothing  of 
the  time  spent  in  visiting  persons  in  order  to  obtain 
their  subscriptions.  Those  who  were  present  can 
never  forget  the  surprise  they  felt  when  one  Sunday 
morning  Dr.  Arthur  Mitchell,  the  pastor,  stopped 
in  the  midst  of  his  sermon  and  asked  Dr.  Pearsons 
to  come  forward  and  address  the  people.  The  con- 
gregation was  large.  Men  of  wealth  were  there  in 
goodly  numbers.  Rather  more  than  forty  thousand 
dollars  were  still  to  be  pledged  if  the  debt  was  paid. 
The  trustees  had  said  that  sum  could  not  be  secured 
and  so  thought  the  pastor.  Dr.  Pearsons  was  con- 
fident that  it  could  be.  His  first  words  were  words 
of  cheer.  "This  debt  is  going  to  be  paid  this  morn- 
ing. We  can  pay  it  and  we  will  pay  it.  It  only 
means  that  those  who  have  given  one  thousand 
dollars  must  give  two  thousand.  I  have  given 
five  thousand  dollars  and  I  am  going  to  give  five 
thousand  more."  Then  the  tellers,  carefully  selected 

52 


BUSINESS  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 

by  Dr.  Pearsons  beforehand,  went  round  to  receive 
pledges.  Thirty  thousand  dollars  came  in.  Ten 
thousand  were  left.  "Who  will  provide  for  this 
little  remnant  of  debt  in  blocks  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  each?"  In  a  few  minutes  the  blocks 
were  taken  and  so  ended  this  debt-paying  affair 
which  meant  so  much  to  this  important  church, 
but  which  Dr.  Pearsons  used  to  say  was  not  worth 
mentioning.  Its  success  was  due  to  the  generosity, 
the  wisdom,  the  patience  and  the  persistency  of 
the  man  who  has  done  so  much  for  the  colleges  of 
our  country. 

In  1873,  while  living  at  the  Palmer  House,  in  the 
First  Ward,  Dr.  Pearsons  was  nominated  as  an  alder- 
man to  represent  that  ward  in  the  common  council. 
It  was  an  independent  nomination,  but  was  promptly 
accepted  by  both  parties,  so  that  the  election  was 
practically  unanimous.  He  served  in  the  council 
for  three  years  and  to  the  duties  which  came  to  him 
as  alderman,  gave  almost  undivided  attention. 
Speaking  of  the  time  required  for  the  discharge  of 
these  duties  he  has  said  again  and  again,  it  cost  him 
not  less  than  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year  to  serve 
the  Ward  while  he  represented  it.  Mayor  Heath 
made  him  chairman  of  the  finance  committee  which 
included  such  men  as  S.  H.  McCrea,  once  President 
of  the  Board  of  Trade,  Jacob  Rosenberg  and  J.  B. 
Briggs.  The  city  had  suffered  very  greatly  from  the 
fire  of  October  9,  1871.  Taxes  had  been  collected 
with  difficulty.  Even  those  of  1873  and  1874  were 
delinquent.  It  was  a  part  of  the  duty  of  the  finance 

53 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

committee  to  discover  some  way  to  collect  them. 
Meanwhile  the  credit  of  the  city  was  at  a  low  ebb. 
In  fact  it  was  as  nearly  bankrupt  as  a  city  could  be 
and  preserve  the  semblance  of  credit.  It  was  pay- 
ing its  bills  in  scrip  which  was  selling  at  a  discount. 
Through  a  New  York  bank,  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars  worth  of  bonds  had  been  sold.  Interest  on 
them  was  overdue  and  the  creditors  were  demanding 
their  money.  Mayor  Heath  and  the  other  members 
of  the  finance  committee  urged  Dr.  Pearsons  to  go 
to  New  York,  pacify  these  bondholders  by  explain- 
ing the  situation,  and  persuade  them  to  give  the  city 
a  little  more  time  to  meet  its  obligations.  The 
president  of  the  bank  through  which  the  bonds  had 
been  sold  gave  Dr.  Pearsons  a  hearty  welcome  and 
set  aside  a  room  for  him  in  which  to  meet  the  dis- 
appointed and  clamoring  creditors. 

There  was  something  in  Dr.  Pearsons'  appear- 
ance that  created  a  favorable  feeling  toward  him  on 
their  part,  from  the  very  first.  In  reporting  that 
meeting  he  said  that  as  these  creditors  gathered, 
they  had  little  to  say  about  what  was  due  them, 
but  a  great  deal  about  what  the  city  had  suffered 
from  the  fire.  Although  no  money  was  paid  them 
at  the  time,  they  went  away  satisfied  that  the  city 
would  finally,  as  it  did,  meet  all  of  its  obligations. 
There  was  a  single  exception.  One  man  came  into 
the  room  where  Dr.  Pearsons  was  conferring  with 
the  creditors,  saying  in  a  loud  voice  and  waving  a 
piece  of  paper,  "Where  is  that  man  from  Chicago? 
I  want  my  money,  and  I  want  it  now." 

54 


BUSINESS  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 

"  Do  you  want  the  principal  as  well  as  the  interest?'* 

"Can  I  have  it?"  he  asked. 

"Certainly,"  replied  Dr.  Pearsons.  "Wait  until 
I  telegraph  to  Chicago;  I  have  money  in  the  bank. 
I  will  pay  you  myself.  The  credit  of  the  city  is 
good.  I  will  advance  you  the  money." 

"Do  you  mean  that  you  will  pay  this  money 
yourself,  and  do  you  say  that  the  credit  of  the  city 
is  good?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"Well,  then,"  said  the  man,  in  a  different  tone  of 
voice,  "if  I  can  have  my  money  when  I  want  it,  I 
do  not  care  for  it  now,"  and  putting  his  paper  in  his 
pocket  he  quietly  withdrew.  This  was  one  of  the 
men  who  had  given  the  President  of  the  Bank  a 
great  deal  of  trouble  by  his  unreasonable  demands 
for  his  money.  It  was  the  manner  of  Dr.  Pearsons, 
his  tact  in  dealing  with  men,  his  ability  and  when 
necessary,  as  in  the  case  just  mentioned,  his  willing- 
ness to  pledge  his  own  fortune  to  save  the  credit  of 
the  city,  that  rendered  this  visit  to  New  York  at  this 
critical  period  in  its  history,  so  important  and  so 
memorable.  Without  the  aid  and  the  firmness  of 
such  Mayors  as  Monroe  Heath  and  Thomas  Hoyne, 
backed  by  such  men  as  formed  their  Finance  Com- 
mittee, the  scrip  which  had  been  issued  to  meet 
current  expenses  would  have  been  repudiated.  For 
on  some  technical  ground  the  court  pronounced  its 
issue  illegal.  The  Finance  Committee  refused  to 
take  advantage  of  the  creditors  of  the  city,  even  with 
a  decision  of  a  court  behind  them.  In  time  the  scrip 

55 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K  PEARSONS 

was  taken  up  at  its  full  value.  It  is  doubtful  if  any 
three  years  of  Dr.  Pearsons'  life  have  ever  been  more 
useful  than  the  three  years  in  which  he  served  Chi- 
cago as -alder  man  from  the  First  Ward. 

In  1889  the  public  was  startled  by  the  announce- 
ment that  Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons  had  retired  from  busi- 
ness, that  having  acquired  a  fortune  he  saw  no 
reason  for  increasing  it,  that  as  he  had  no  children 
to  provide  for,  no  relatives  dependent  upon  him  for 
support,  he  could  see  no  reason  why  he  should  not 
devote  the  remainder  of  his  days  to  travel  and  to  the 
employment  of  the  means  which  God  had  entrusted 
to  him  for  the  welfare  of  others.  But  the  announce- 
ment made  it  clear  that  it  would  do  no  good  to 
solicit  gifts  from  him,  that  having  acquired  his  for- 
tune through  his  own  efforts  he  would  dispose  of  it 
without  asking  advice  from  any  one. 

Some  years  before  reaching  this  decision  Dr. 
Pearsons  had  purchased  a  ten-acre  tract  of  land  in 
Hinsdale,  a  suburb  on  the  Burlington  Road,  sixteen 
miles  from  the  city  of  Chicago.  The  land  was 
slightly  rolling,  well  covered  with  noble  trees,  and 
within  a  short  walk  from  the  railway  station.  Almost 
in  the  center  of  this  beautiful  tract,  the  Doctor 
erected  a  large  and  comfortable  house  and  furnished 
it  in  accordance  with  his  wife's  wishes  and  in  deference 
to  her  taste.  In  this  delightful  home  they  lived 
together  until  1906,  when  Mrs.  Pearsons,  after  a 
long  illness,  passed  on  to  her  eternal  rest.  Lovers 
of  the  beautiful,  not  indifferent  to  what  is  known  as 
good  living,  with  no  pleasure  in  the  gaieties  of  life, 

56 


BUSINESS  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 

rarely  entering  into  society,  caring  nothing  for 
fashion,  above  the  temptation  to  spend  money  for 
show,  they  were  satisfied  to  dwell  apart  from  the 
strife  of  the  business  world,  and  to  consider  in  what 
way  they  could  most  wisely  invest  the  means  God 
had  given  them  for  the  permanent  advantage  of  the 
youth  of  the  nation.  At  Hinsdale  they  resumed  the 
simple  life  in  which  they  had  taken  such  pleasure 
at  48  Van  Buren  Street,  and  still  earlier,  in  Chicopee, 
Massachusetts.  They  enjoyed  the  visits  of  con- 
genial friends  and  the  freedom  of  abundant  space 
and  pure  air,  and  with  daily  rides  in  an  attractive 
country  they  renewed  their  strength  and  deepened 
their  interest  in  the  welfare  of  mankind. 

Free  from  business  obligations,  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Pearsons  were  at  liberty  to  go  where  they  pleased, 
whether  in  their  own  country  or  in  other  countries. 
Both  were  very  fond  of  travel,  fond  of  meeting  intel- 
ligent people  with  views  somewhat  different  from 
their  own.  Three  times  they  crossed  the  Atlantic 
and  extended  their  visits  East.  They  made  them- 
selves familiar  with  the  Pacific  Coast  from  Southern 
California  to  Alaska.  Winters  they  spent  wholly, 
or  in  part,  at  the  South,  sometimes  visiting  again  the 
places  they  had  visited  in  the  early  years  of  their 
business  life.  Summers  often  found  them  in  New 
England  with  friends  or  at  quiet  resorts  where  they 
met  people  with  whom  it  was  a  pleasure  to  associate. 

A  very  important  member  of  the  Hinsdale  family 
was  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Pearsons,  Miss  Julia  A.  Chapin, 
who  had  cared  for  her  mother  in  the  East  till  her 

57 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

death,  and  who  afterwards  made  her  home  in  Hins- 
dale.  She  was  a  brilliant  woman,  intellectually  and 
socially,  very  benevolent,  and  heartily  in  sympathy 
with  her  brother  and  sister  in  their  plans  of  dispos- 
ing of  their  wealth.  At  her  death  in  1904,  the  Wom- 
an's Board  of  Foreign  Missions  for  the  Interior, 
received  a  bequest  from  her  of  more  than  $23,000.00 
as  an  endowment.  To  this  home  there  came  visitors 
from  every  section  of  the  country,  and  even  from 
abroad,  seeking  for  such  aid  as  its  inmates  were  giv- 
ing and  confirming  them  in  the  wisdom  of  the  plans 
they  had  determined  to  follow.  Here  were  discussed 
those  methods  of  giving  which  have  placed  so  many 
of  our  colleges  on  a  good  financial  basis  and  have  made 
a  higher  education  possible  even  for  poor  boys  and 
girls.  Nor  were  these  discussions  confined  to  the 
United  States  alone.  The  interests  and  needs  of  the 
foreign  field  were  not  forgotten.  Anatolia  College 
in  Turkey  received  large  and  timely  aid,  and  through 
Mrs.  Pearsons  the  Presbyterians  were  enabled  to 
keep  at  least  two  women  steadily  at  work  in  the 
fields  under  their  care.  Young  women  from  the 
South,  chiefly  from  Berea,  born  among  the  moun- 
tains, uncultured  and  untrained  as  they  were,  were 
received  into  the  home,  and  while  employed  as  serv- 
ants were  treated  as  friends  and  companions;  after 
receiving  instructions  from  Mrs.  Pearsons  in  the 
mysteries  and  duties  of  housekeeping  and  the  usages 
of  good  society,  they  returned  to  the  college  to  finish 
their  studies,  or  to  their  homes,  from  which  others 
were  sent  away  for  an  education. 

58 


BUSINESS  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 

Here  we  may  pause  to  ask  how  it  was  possible  for 
a  man  forty  years  of  age,  without  influential  friends, 
in  less  than  thirty  years  to  acquire  a  fortune  of  sev- 
eral millions  of  dollars  in  a  city  like  Chicago?  Most 
people  would  say  it  was  because  of  his  rare  business 
capacity,  the  singleness  of  his  aim,  of  his  power  to 
read  men  at  a  glance,  his  honesty  in  all  his  transac- 
tions, and  his  evident  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the 
men  with  whom  he  dealt.  The  Doctor's  answer  to 
this  question  always  has  been,  "Through  a  kind 
Providence  all  things  worked  together  for  my  advan- 
tage. All  my  plans  succeeded."  True,  they  were 
well-laid  plans.  They  were  carefully  thought  out, 
and  only  those  followed  which  promised  immediate 
success.  Few  risks  were  taken.  One  object  was  kept 
in  mind,  the  making  of  money.  Expenses  were  kept 
at  the  lowest  point  possible,  consistent  with  com- 
fortable living.  Nothing  was  paid  out  for  costly 
entertainments.  No  money  was  wasted  on  theatres 
or  operas.  With  household  expenses  never  exceed- 
ing two  or  three  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  per- 
sonal expenses  reduced  to  a  minimum,  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  see  that  with  an  income  that  often  averaged 
three  thousand  dollars  a  week,  money  would  accum- 
ulate rapidly.  The  gains  were  all  invested  with 
great  care  and  were  soon  adding  large  sums  to  the 
yearly  income.  Opportunities  for  investment  were 
constant  and  promising.  Bank  stock  was  pur- 
chased at  its  lowest  price.  This  stock  was  never 
sold.  Its  dividends  were  invested  in  stock  in  other 
banks  at  or  near  par,  and  as  this  stock  was  con- 

59 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

stantly  rising  in  value,  the  gain  on  it  alone  in  the 
course  of  a  generation  would  produce  a  fortune. 
For  many  years  houses  and  land  in  different  parts 
of  the  city  rapidly  increased  in  value.  The  pine 
lands  in  Michigan  yielded  large  returns.  But  with 
the  same  opportunities  another  man  might  not  have 
obtained  the  wealth  which  seemed  to  flow  so  natur- 
ally into  Dr.  Pearsons'  hands.  His  success  was 
certainly  due  to  the  good  Providence  of  God,  but 
with  that  Providence  he  cooperated.  He  was  care- 
ful to  keep  his  character  good.  He  looked  after  his 
health.  He  dressed  with  scrupulous  care,  though 
inexpensively.  If  his  diet  was  simple,  it  was  as 
nourishing  as  possible.  He  never  failed  to  give  him- 
self sufficient  sleep,  or  to  sleep  where  he  would  have 
an  abundance  of  fresh  air.  Nor  did  he  hesitate  to 
spend  money  generously  when  necessary  to  secure 
more  business.  He  advertised  extensively.  He 
gave  money  to  churches,  schools,  libraries  in  order 
to  persuade  people  to  buy  his  land.  He  cultivated 
the  acquaintance  of  leading  men  who  lived  in  the 
region  where  his  lands  were  situated.  He  took 
pains  to  have  good  stories  to  tell  when  he  met  farm- 
ers and  business  men  out  in  the  state.  Whenever  he 
made  a  sale  of  land  he  did  his  best  to  make  the  pur- 
chaser feel  that  he  had  obtained  the  worth  of  his 
money.  In  various  ways  he  sought  and  succeeded 
in  winning  the  confidence  of  people,  so  that  when 
immigrants  came  from  the  East  their  friends  would 
refer  them  to  him  as  a  man  who  would  treat  them 
honestly  and  befriend  them  to  the  best  of  his  ability. 


BUSINESS  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 

True,  he  held  people  to  their  agreements.  They  were 
expected  to  meet  their  obligations  promptly,  but 
no  more  was  ever  exacted  than  was  due,  and  no  land 
title  which  passed  through  his  hands  was  found 
imperfect. 

He  never  complained.  Disappointed  at  times  he 
may  have  been,  but  of  these  disappointments  he 
said  nothing.  He  was  cheerful  in  the  homes  where 
he  stopped  for  a  night  for  food.  He  was  optimistic 
in  the  darkest  period  of  our  history.  Were  the  times 
hard?  He  knew  they  would  be  better.  He  could 
give  reasons  for  his  belief,  and  often  won  many 
others  over  to  his  way  of  thinking. 

As  a  business  man  he  trusted  his  own  judgment. 
He  did  not  ask  advice  of  other  men,  however  suc- 
cessful they  may  have  been.  Yet  he  did  not  over- 
look the  fact  that  the  methods  they  had  pursued, 
might  be  the  methods  he  ought  to  pursue.  But  he 
did  not  follow  them,  until  after  careful  investiga- 
tion, he  had  convinced  himself  of  their  value. 
He  did  nothing  hastily,  yet  at  times  his  decisions 
seemed  to  be  made  on  the  spur  of  the  moment.  In 
reality  they  were  the  result  of  years  of  experience 
and  study.  Having  made  himself  master  of  all 
the  facts  connected  with  the  transactions  he  had  in 
hand,  be  was,  naturally,  equal  to  any  emergency 
that  might  arise  with  regard  to  any  one  of  them. 
In  his  case  there  was  not  much  chance  for  emer- 
gencies. He  had  prepared  for  them  so  carefully  that 
they  did  not  arise,  or  if  now  and  then  one  met  him, 
he  was  ready  for  it.  He  was  careful  not  to  be  taken 

61 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

off  his  guard,  or  to  be  tempted  into  speech  or  action 
he  might  afterwards  regret.  In  his  later  business 
years  as  the  result  of  long  experience,  he  could  say 
almost  immediately  whether  he  would  or  would  not 
consider  a  proposed  trade.  He  learned  to  know 
men.  His  clerk  used  to  say  of  him,  that  he  would 
look  a  man  through  as  soon  as  he  came  into  his 
office,  and  that  his  judgment  of  him  was  nearly 
always  correct.  This  gift  was  of  value  to  him  not 
only  in  his  business  life,  but  in  that  more  strenuous 
period  devoted  to  the  distribution  of  his  property.  It 
enabled  him  to  detect  beggars  who  came  to  him  as 
gentlemen,  but  whose  object  was  personal  gain. 
Not  many  of  these  beggars  of  the  first  rank  were 
likely  to  call  upon  him  a  second  time.  His  refusal 
to  grant  their  request  did  not  need  to  be  repeated. 
He  was  equally  quick  to  detect  merit,  and  many  a 
man  who  entered  his  office  in  fear  went  away  with 
courage,  for  he  had  seen  a  man  who  sympathized 
with  him,  realized  what  burdens  he  was  carrying 
and  had  promised  him  help. 

One  of  the  rules  which  he  followed  and  commended 
to  a  company  of  young  men  seeking  his  advice  in  his 
own  language  is  as  follows:  "Keep  cool,  don't 
overload  the  stomach,  breathe  pure  air,  and  lots  of 
it,  eat  a  vegetable  diet,  don't  eat  late  suppers,  go  to 
bed  early,  don't  fret,  don't  go  where  you  will  get 
excited,  and  when  you  grow  older,  don't  forget  to 
take  a  nap  after  dinner.  Old  age  depends  upon 
heredity,  common  sense  and  a  good  stomach."  In 
a  speech  at  Beloit  in  reply  to  the  question,  "How 

62 


BUSINESS  LIFE  IN  CHICAGO 

did  I  make  my  money?"  he  said:  "I'll  tell  you 
boys  a  secret.  I  did  it  by  keeping  my  character 
clean.  That's  the  only  thing  I  had  to  start  with, 
and  it  is  the  best  thing  any  man  can  have.  With- 
out it  you  are  not  worth  a  picayune."  In  an  address  to 
the  Sons  of  Vermont,  at  one  of  their  annual  dinners, 
he  said,  "It  is  not  easy  to  give  the  secret  of  success. 
It  cannot  be  described.  It  is  inborn."  And  yet  he 
was  always  careful  to  say  that  he  never  lost  sight 
of  his  determination  when  in  business  life  to  make 
money,  to  put  aside  anything  and  everything  that 
interfered  with  it;  that  he  never  spent  money  fool- 
ishly, or  for  anything  not  absolutely  necessary, 
nothing  for  theatres  or  operas,  or  base-ball  or  foot- 
ball exhibitions,  nothing  for  simple  pleasure  unless 
in  travel;  that  he  practised  the  utmost  economy,  was 
frugal  from  the  first  and  intended  to  be  until  the  end 
of  his  life,  that  he  never  did  any  business  on  borrowed 
capital  or  entered  into  speculations  of  any  sort.  He 
kept  his  resources  so  completely  under  his  control 
that  he  could  turn  them  into  cash  at  an  hour's 
notice. 

It  is  not  strange  that  such  men  as  he  should  suc- 
ceed. It  would  have  been  stranger  if  he  had  failed. 
For  to  clearness  of  vision,  a  cheerful  and  optimistic 
disposition,  a  judgment  of  men  that  rarely  failed  to 
be  correct,  native  endowments  of  a  very  high  order, 
a  business  ability  that  seemed  to  thrive  on  difficulties, 
and  singleness  of  aim,  there  were  added  a  persis- 
tency of  purpose  which  nothing  could  turn  aside,  a 
willingness  to  endure  hardship  and  continuance  of 

63 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

toil  which  would  have  broken  down  almost  any  other 
man,  a  combination  of  qualities  which  won  success 
almost  as  soon  as  they  were  brought  into  exercise 
and  rendered  failure  well-nigh  impossible. 


64 


VI 

BEGINNING  OF  A  GREAT  BENEVOLENT  CAREER. 
GIFTS  TO  CHICAGO  INSTITUTIONS.  DECI- 
SION TO  AID  COLLEGES 


VI 

BEGINNING  OF  A  GREAT  BENEVOLENT  CAREER. 
GIFTS  TO  CHICAGO  INSTITUTIONS.  DECI- 
SION TO  AID  COLLEGES 

PREVIOUS  chapters  have  shown  that  Dr. 
Pearsons  was  looked  upon  as  a  generous  man 
long  before  colleges  became  the  chief  object 
of  his  bounty.  Until  his  removal  to  Hinsdale  in 
1885,  he  was  a  steady  attendant  at  the  First  Presby- 
terian Church,  of  which  his  wife  was  a  member,  one 
of  its  staunchest  and  most  liberal  supporters,  and 
a  willing  contributor  to  its  many  charities.  As  has 
been  said  he  was  a  teacher  in  its  Railroad  Mission, 
founded  by  Rev.  Aratus  Kent,  in  hearty  sympathy 
with  its  work  and  ready  always  to  bear  his  full 
share  of  its  expenses. 

After  his  removal  to  Hinsdale  in  1885,  at  a  largely 
attended  meeting  of  its  Society,  the  church  put  on 
record  its  appreciation  of  the  service  he  had  rendered 
it  while  acting  as  Chairman  of  its  Board  of  Trustees. 
It  was  through  his  initiative,  by  his  personal  efforts 
in  connection  with  such  men  as  the  late  Messrs. 
Sherwood  and  Swift  and  by  his  own  gifts  of  more 
than  ten  thousand  dollars  that  its  debt  was  paid. 

67 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

The  Resolution,  which  reads:  "Resolved:  that 
hearty  thanks  be  given  to  Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons  for  his 
faithful  and  devoted  service,  wise  counsel  and  liberal 
gifts,  especially  during  the  financial  distress  of  this 
church,"  was  unanimously  adopted  and  with  expres- 
sions of  sorrow  that  he  had  found  it  necessary  to 
remove  from  the  city  and  establish  his  home  in  one 
of  its  suburbs. 

Interested  from  its  organization  in  the  work  of 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  to  which  from  the  first  to  the  last 
he  has  given  very  large  sums,  in  October,  1887,  he 
turned  over  to  its  President,  J.  V.  Far  well,  Jr., 
property  valued  at  $30,000.00.  In  1908  the  Asso- 
ciation received  from  him  $20,000.00  in  cash  and  in 
1909  $20,000.00  more.  For  the  LaSalle  Street 
Building  he  gave  $10,000.00.  That  the  Association 
appreciates  his  interest  in  it,  is  shown  in  the  follow- 
ing statement  by  its  Secretary,  L.  Wilbur  Messer. 

"Dr.  Pearsons  has  made  four  substantial  gifts  to 
The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  of  Chicago. 
His  first  gift  was  a  piece  of  property  on  Cottage 
Grove  Avenue,  then  valued  at  $30,000.00.  In  that 
period  of  the  Association's  history  this  gift  was 
most  significant  in  its  amount,  and  in  the  recogni- 
tion by  Dr.  Pearsons  of  the  need  of  permanent 
endowment  for  the  future  development  of  the  Asso- 
ciation work.  The  amount  realized  by  the  sale  of 
this  property  was  invested  in  the  endowment  por- 
tion of  the  LaSalle  Street  Building. 

"  The  second  gift  of  Dr.  Pearsons  was  to  the  amount 
of  $10,000.00  in  cash  for  the  LaSalle  Street  Building. 

68 


DECISION  TO  AID   COLLEGES 

This  additional  gift  was  most  timely  in  showing  the 
continued  interest  of  Dr.  Pearsons  in  the  welfare  of 
the  Association  and  in  binding  conditional  sub- 
scriptions. 

"The  third  gift  of  Dr.  Pearsons  was  the  amount  of 
$20,000.00,  made  in  the  early  stage  of  the  canvass 
for  the  Fiftieth  Anniversary  Million  Dollar  Fund. 
This  fund  was  dependent  on  securing  the  larger 
portion  of  the  substantial  gifts  from  representative 
citizens.  The  generous  cooperation  of  Dr.  Pearsons 
assisted  us  in  closing  large  conditional  subscriptions 
and  in  securing  the  cooperation  of  many  others. 

"The  fourth  gift  was  for  the  sum  of  $20,000.00  at 
the  time  of  the  twelve-day  canvass  for  the  comple- 
tion of  the  million  dollar  fund.  The  Association 
had  raised  $831,000.00  toward  its  million  dollar 
fund  in  subscriptions  from  less  than  three  hundred 
persons.  The  twelve-day  canvass  was  then  inaugu- 
rated to  raise  $350,000.00  which  would  not  only  com- 
plete the  Anniversary  Fund,  but  would  make  pos- 
sible the  building  improvements  not  contemplated 
when  that  fund  was  started.  Toward  the  close  of 
this  campaign  Dr.  Pearsons  really  saved  the  situ- 
ation by  this,  his  second  subscription  of  $20,000.00, 
to  the  anniversary  fund.  This  gift  was  the  more 
significant  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  Doctor  had 
said  that  he  would  make  no  other  gifts  except  to 
colleges  which  had  already  been  included  among 
his  beneficiaries.  The  work  of  this  Association  so 
appealed  to  him,  however,  and  his  former  interest 
having  continued,  he  made  his  gift  consistent  by 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

stating  that  he  had  adopted  The  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  of  Chicago  as  one  of  his 
family. 

"Even  more  significant  than  the  gifts  already  men- 
tioned was  the  generous  and  spontaneous  offer  from 
Dr.  Pearsons  on  the  last  day  of  the  canvass  that  he 
would  pay  any  amount  that  was  needed  at  the  close 
of  that  day  to  complete  the  fund  of  $350,000.00. 
The  Association  needed  $18,000.00  at  the  time  this 
offer  was  telephoned  to  our  office,  with  only  four 
hours  to  raise  that  amount.  The  public  response 
was  so  prompt  and  generous,  however,  as  to  com- 
plete the  fund  without  calling  on  Dr.  Pearsons  to 
make  up  any  deficit.  The  gratitude  of  the  Associa- 
tion was  expressed  at  that  time  in  a  resolution, 
which  was  personally  presented  to  Dr.  Pearsons,  at 
his  home,  by  the  President  and  the  General  Secre- 
tary of  the  Association. 

"This  statement  will  show  that  Dr.  Pearsons  has 
been  a  most  important  factor  in  the  broad  develop- 
ment of  the  life  of  The  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation of  Chicago  and  in  the  wise  provision  for 
adequate  endowment  to  safeguard  its  many  in- 
terests." 

The  Resolution  of  which  Mr.  Messer  writes,  as 
passed  by  the  officers  and  friends  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
and  presented  to  Dr.  Pearsons  in  person,  is  as  follows: 

"The  five  hundred  officers,  members  and  friends 
of  The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  who 
have  successfully  promoted  the  campaign  for  $350,- 
000.00  in  twelve  days,  send  hearty  congratulations 

70 


DECISION  TO  AID  COLLEGES 

and  greetings  to  you  as  you  approach  your  ninetieth 
birthday  on  Thursday  of  this  week. 

"Your  generous  subscription  of  $20,000.00  at  a 
critical  point  in  the  campaign,  in  addition  to  your 
former  subscription  of  $20,000.00  for  the  anniver- 
sary fund,  and  your  further  offer  by  telephone  this 
afternoon  to  make  a  further  subscription  of  the 
amount  needed  to  complete  the  fund  at  6  p.  M., 
have  cheered  every  worker  and  have  been  largely 
responsible  for  the  final  success  of  the  undertaking. 

"  The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  is  proud 
to  be  numbered  with  the  many  institutions  whose 
work  has  been  extended  and  strengthened  by  your 
generous  benefactions.  It  is  our  sincere  wish  that 
you  may  enjoy  many  years  of  unmeasured  happiness 
in  realizing  the  results  of  your  practical  philan- 
thropy." 

No  hospital  is  better  known  in  Chicago  or  has 
done  better  work  than  the  Presbyterian.  As  already 
said  this  hospital  grew  out  of  the  efforts  of  Dr. 
Pearsons  in  connection  with  those  of  Drs.  E.  A. 
Hamill  and  J.  P.  Ross.  It  was  the  personal  gifts  of 
Dr.  Pearsons  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  life  of  the 
hospital,  and  his  personal  interest  in  it  and  work  for 
it  that  secured  its  early  prominence  and  success. 
He  was  President  of  its  Board  of  Managers  from 
December,  1883  to  April,  1884;  from  April,  1885  to 
April,  1889;  from  April,  1899  to  December,  1900, 
about  seven  years  in  all. 

His  gifts  to  the  hospital  as  reported  by  its  Super- 
intendent, Mr.  Asa  Bacon,  have  been  as  follows: 

71 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

August  31,  1885 $10,000.00 

January  20,  1887 5,000 . 00 

November  10,  1888 10,000.00 

January  24,  1889 5,000.00 

April  10,  1889 30,149.00 

April,  1907 5,000.00 

Other  gifts  were  made  from  time  to  time  of  which  no 
account  is  here  made.  Through  his  efforts,  in  1888 
for  example,  the  books  show  that  at  least  $5,000.00 
came  to  the  hospital.  Many  large  gifts  are  traceable 
to  his  influence.  As  to  the  effect  of  his  gifts  and  his 
personal  interest  reference  may  be  made  to  the 
dedicatory  address,  dated  April  22,  1889,  of  Dr. 
John  Henry  Barrows,  then  Pastor  of  the  First  Pres- 
byterian Church.  His  words  are:  "It  would  be 
unjust  not  to  mention,  even  in  his  presence,  the 
incalculable  services  which  have  been  rendered  by 
the  gifts,  the  active  interest,  and  the  sleepless  labor 
of  him  who  for  years  has  been  the  President  of  this 
institution,  Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons.  The  debt  which 
the  hospital  owes  to  him  can  never  be  fully  under- 
stood, except  by  those  who  have  so  faithfully  worked 
with  him." 

Ernest  A.  Hamill,  in  his  report  to  the  Board  of 
Managers,  April  8,  1901,  said:  "Our  esteemed 
President,  Dr.  Daniel  K.  Pearsons,  retired  Decem- 
ber 17,  1900,  from  the  presidency  of  the  Board  of 
Managers,  owing  to  the  many  demands  made  upon 
his  time  and  strength  by  his  philanthropic  work. 
One  of  the  hospital's  earliest  friends,  Dr.  Pearsons 
gave  generously  in  money  and  encouragement  when 

72 


DECISION  TO  AID  COLLEGES 

both  necessities  came  slowly,  and  for  many  years 
his  interest  in  the  hospital  has  been  active  and 
practical."  That  interest  continued  unbroken  to 
the  last  days  of  his  life,  and  was  as  deep  as  his  inter- 
est in  any  one  of  the  colleges  he  had  aided. 

In  the  Historical  Society,  The  Academy  of  Science 
and  more  recently  in  the  Orchestra  Association,  he 
had  an  interest  which  found  expression  in  substan- 
tial gifts.  What  a  single  gift  has  accomplished  for 
the  Art  Institute  we  know  from  its  highly  hon- 
ored Director,  Mr.  W.  M.  R.  French,  who 
writes : 

"From  the  foundation  of  the  Art  Institute  in 
1879,  I  had  longed  for  a  collection  of  Braun  and 
Company's  reproductions  of  standard  works  of  art. 
I  had  a  list  of  about  500  carefully  prepared,  hoping 
to  be  able  to  buy  them.  About  1892  an  agent  of 
Braun  and  Company  visited  Chicago,  and  I  took 
him  to  Mr.  Hutchinson.  (Mr.  Hutchinson  has  been 
one  of  the  men  who  has  put  time,  money  and  thought 
into  the  Institute,  and  done  more  than  any  other 
person,  apart  from  the  Director,  to  secure  its  suc- 
cess.) I  remember  the  Artist,  Mr.  Childe  Hassam, 
was  here  and  went  along  with  me  to  interpret  the 
agent's  French.  Mr.  Hutchinson  promptly  asked 
the  agent  to  ascertain  from  his  House  at  what  price 
they  would  sell  their  whole  publication,  amounting 
to  16,000  or  more  autotypes.  The  Columbian  Expo- 
sition was  coming  on,  and  the  House  of  Braun  and 
Company  was  anxious  to  have  its  works  put  before 
the  people.  The  Art  Institute  Building  was  used  for 

73 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

the  World's  Congress.  The  whole  collection,  I  sup- 
pose, at  the  retail  price,  would  be  worth  $40,000  or 
$50,000.  The  result  of  it  all  was  that  they  offered 
to  sell  the  whole  collection,  excepting  a  few  which 
were  virtually  duplicates,  or  otherwise  undesirable, 
for  $15,000.00.  The  photographs  we  actually 
received  numbered  a  little  above  16,000.  We  have 
not  added  more  than  500  since.  Mr.  Hutchinson 
went  to  Dr.  Pearsons  and  proposed  to  him  to  pay 
for  half  the  collection,  the  Art  Institute  to  pay  for 
the  other  half.  To  this  Dr.  Pearsons  assented.  The 
next  day  he  came  in  and  told  Mr.  Hutchinson  that 
when  he  told  his  wife  what  he  had  done,  she  said  he 
ought  not  to  be  doing  things  by  halves  that  way; 
and  he  would  pay  for  the  whole.  So  the  collection 
was  named  the  'Mrs.  D.  K.  Pearsons  Collection  of 
Carbon  Photographs/  It  is  the  largest  of  its  kind 
in  America,  the  second  being  in  the  Public  Library 
in  Portland,  Oregon,  the  third  in  the  Athenaeum 
Library  in  Boston.  In  the  Art  Institute  it  forms  a 
wonderful  basis  for  the  study  of  art.  It  is  entirely 
accessible  to  students  at  all  times,  and  is  really  open 
to  the  public  on  the  free  days  of  the  Art  Institute, 
Wednesday  and  Saturday.  It  has  suffered  little 
from  its  free  use  for  sixteen  or  seventeen  years.  We 
always  show  it  to  our  visitors  as  one  of  the  remark- 
able features  of  the  library." 

The  gift  was  made  in  1892  and  was  without  con- 
ditions. This  gift  emphasizes  a  remark  frequently 
made  by  Dr.  Pearsons.  "It  is  surprising  how  much 
good  a  little  money  will  do  if  given  wisely  at  the 

74 


DECISION  TO  AID  COLLEGES 

right  time  and  to  persons  who  know  how  to  use  it 
for  the  benefit  of  others." 

In  1887  he  conveyed  property  worth  $50,- 
000.00  to  the  Trustees  of  the  McCormick  Theo- 
logical Seminary  (Presbyterian),  the  income  to  be 
used  as  scholarships  for  needy  young  men  prepar- 
ing themselves  for  the  ministry.  The  President  of 
this  Seminary,  Rev.  Dr.  James  G.  K.  McClure, 
writes : 

"As  to  the  gift  made  by  Dr.  Pearsons  and  his  wife 
to  the  Scholarship  Endowment  Fund  of  the  Mc- 
Cormick Theological  Seminary,  'out  of  glad  and 
willing  hearts,  in  the  hope  that  it  will  prove  to  the 
glory  of  God  in  the  education  of  young  men  in  the 
Gospel  Ministry/  I  cannot  speak  with  too  high  appre- 
ciation. It  came  at  a  time  when  it  was  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  continuance  of  the  work  of  the 
Seminary.  Without  it  there  would  have  been  no 
sufficient  provisions  for  the  needs  of  the  students 
and  the  students  would  have  been  obliged  either  to 
give  up  studying  for  the  ministry  or  to  seek  some 
other  institution  which  could  properly  care  for  them. 
The  income  from  this  gift  has  been  applied  care- 
fully to  the  assistance  of  young  men  whose  means 
are  not  sufficient  to  carry  them  through  the  Semi- 
nary course.  The  men  who  have  been  thus  assisted 
have  gone  into  every  part  of  the  world,  living  and 
preaching  the  gospel.  I  can  well  believe  that  no 
gift  Dr.  Pearsons  has  ever  made  tends  to  bring  him 
larger  comfort  of  heart  than  this  gift  to  the  Scholar- 


75 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

ship  Fund  on  October  25th,  1887,  of  McCormick 
Theological  Seminary." 

Two  days  later,  October  27th,  as  a  joint  gift  from 
himself  and  Mrs.  Pearsons,  he  conveyed  property 
valued  at  $20,000.00  to  the  officers  of  the  Woman's 
Foreign  Missionary  Board  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  the  Northwest,  so  much  of  the  income  as 
might  be  required  to  be  set  aside  for  the  support  of 
two  women  as  missionaries  in  the  fields  under  the 
care  of  this  Board  and  the  remainder  to  be  used  for 
current  expenses. 

October  24,  1887,  he  invited  Professors  Fisk  and 
Boardman,  Curtiss  and  Scott  of  the  Chicago  Theo- 
logical Seminary  (Congregational)  to  meet  him  in 
his  office,  and  after  asking  a  few  questions  and 
affirming  his  interest  in  the  Seminary,  he  put  into 
their  hands  deeds  to  seven  houses,  then  renting  for 
$4,000.00  a  year  and  valued  by  experts  at  $50,000.00, 
the  income  to  be  used  as  scholarships  for  students 
in  the  Foreign  Departments  of  the  Seminary. 

Since  that  first  gift,  Dr.  Pearsons  has  made  other 
gifts  amounting  to  more  than  $350,000.00,  which, 
coming  at  critical  periods  and  for  special  objects, 
have  not  only  added  to  the  efficiency  of  the  Semi- 
nary, but,  as  Dr.  G.  S.  F.  Savage,  for  so  many  years 
its  financial  secretary,  and  one  of  its  wisest  leaders, 
and  most  devoted  friends,  says,  saved  it  from  extinc- 
tion. These  gifts  came  to  it  when  professors  and 
directors  and  friends  were  despondent,  and  inspired 
new  hopes  in  them,  and  stimulated  them  to  renewed 
and  successful  efforts  in  its  behalf. 

76 


DECISION  TO  AID  COLLEGES 

In  a  statement  concerning  the  results  of  these 
gifts  to  the  Seminary,  Dr.  O.  S.  Davis,  its  President, 
writes : 

"It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  measure  by  any  con- 
crete standards  the  practical  results  of  generous 
donations  toward  the  endowment  of  an  institution. 
The  practical  issues  are  seen  in  so  many  different 
ways  that  only  the  record  of  the  entire  service  of  the 
institution  to  civilization  can  adequately  measure 
the  result  of  those  means  by  which  such  a  service 
has  been  made  possible.  Therefore,  since  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  the  entire  service  of  Chicago 
Theological  Seminary  has  depended  essentially  upon 
the  gifts  of  Dr.  Pearsons,  the  first  result  is  seen  in 
the  total  service  of  the  Seminary  to  the  Kingdom  of 
God  from  the  day  when  his  first  gift  was  received. 

There  are,  however,  certain  definite  lines  of  serv- 
ice in  which  the  gifts  of  Dr.  Pearsons  have  borne 
peculiar  fruit.  Chicago  Seminary  has  had  under  its 
instruction  nearly  two  thousand  students.  Its 
unique  contribution  to  the  Kingdom  and  Church  of 
Christ  has  been  in  the  establishment  of  three  Insti- 
tutes for  the  training  of  Germans,  Norwegians  and 
Swedes;  and  from  these  Institutes  have  been  sent  out 
almost  five  hundred  men,  who  have  gathered  over 
three  hundred  and  twenty-five  churches  of  their 
own  speech.  There  has  been  no  other  institution 
which  has  made  an  experiment  of  this  kind,  but 
Chicago  Seminary  has  spent  over  a  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  in  this  enterprise.  It  is  needless  to  say 
that  the  donations  of  Dr.  Pearsons  have  rendered 

77 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

possible  through  their  income  the  pursuit  of  this 
unique  work. 

"In  its  regular  departments,  however,  Chicago 
Seminary  has  furnished  an  opportunity  for  techni- 
cal training  to  the  graduates  of  the  colleges  of  the 
Central  West,  and  has  given  them  the  privilege  of 
studying  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  where  there  is  to  a 
pre-eminent  degree  the  one  especial  field  in  which 
men  may  be  adequately  prepared  for  service  in  the 
interior  states.  There  is  a  freedom  and  democracy 
in  the  cosmopolitan  city  of  Chicago  which  is  scarcely 
to  be  found  elsewhere,  and  the  permanence  of  Chi- 
cago Seminary  in  this  field  is  essentially  important 
to  the  life  of  our  Congregational  churches  in  the 
Middle  West.  While  the  service  of  our  New  Eng- 
land Seminaries  to  our  Congregational  churches 
has  been  efficient  beyond  any  criticism,  it  is  still 
true  that  a  Seminary  in  Chicago  is  logically  and 
essentially  necessary  to  our  Congregationalism.  It 
is  not  too  much  to  say  that  without  the  gifts  of  Dr. 
Pearsons  the  work  of  the  Chicago  Seminary  could 
not  have  been  successfully  maintained  and  its  future 
service  could  scarcely  be  anticipated." 

From  1887  to  1911  Dr.  Pearsons'  interest  in  the 
Seminary  has  continued.  He  has  watched  its  work 
and  its  development  carefully,  and,  as  his  last  gift 
of  $100,000.00  made  without  conditions  shows,  its 
welfare  has  been  on  his  heart  as  that  of  one  of  his 
own  children.  Nor  can  anyone  doubt  that  his  con- 
ditional gifts  have  largely  increased  the  constituency 
and  friends  of  the  Seminary.  They  were  made  at 

78 


DECISION  TO  AID  COLLEGES 

critical  periods  in  its  history  and  in  such  a  way  as 
put  courage  and  enthusiasm  into  the  hearts  of  its 
professors  and  directors. 

A  gift  to  the  training  school  for  young  women  as 
pastor's  assistants  of  $25,000.00  has  secured  a  home 
for  teachers  and  students  and  through  the  affilia- 
tion of  the  school  with  the  seminary,  made  it  possible 
for  the  professors  in  the  seminary  to  furnish,  with- 
out cost,  a  large  part  of  the  instruction  they  require. 
During  its  short  life  it  has  already  accomplished 
very  much  good  and  laid  foundations  for  future 
service,  the  value  of  which  can  hardly  be  estimated. 

But  no  gifts  that  Dr.  Pearsons  has  made  have 
been  more  useful  than  those  to  the  Chicago  City 
Missionary  Society.  This  Society  was  organized 
by  the  Congregational  Churches  of  Chicago  twenty- 
nine  years  ago  as  an  agency  through  which  the  larger 
and  more  prosperous  churches  might  aid  those  that 
were  weak  and  establish  churches  and  mission  schools 
in  places  where  they  were  needed.  While  aiding 
churches  which  gave  promise  of  speedily  or  in  course 
of  a  few  years  being  able  to  care  for  themselves,  its 
main  efforts  were  from  the  first  and  have  continued 
to  be  directed  to  purely  mission  fields  to  work  with 
our  foreign  population,  or  with  churches  which, 
while  doing  earnest  and  aggressive  work,  give  small 
promise  of  self-support.  It  was  to  the  work  in  this 
needy  field,  with  the  poorer  classes  of  our  popula- 
tion, with  laboring  men  and  women,  with  the  chil- 
dren of  parents  who  had  left  their  native  land  in  the 
hope  of  bettering  their  condition,  that  the  attention 

79 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Pearsons  was  called.  With  this 
kind  of  Christian  service  they  were  both  in  deep 
sympathy,  and  very  early  in  the  history  of  the  Society 
they  contributed  liberally  to  its  funds.  An  effort  of 
the  Society  in  1904  to  increase  its  endowment  to 
$150,000  met  his  hearty  approval,  and  he  promised, 
on  considering  what  had  been  accomplished  and  what 
might  be  accomplished  with  larger  means  at  its  dis- 
posal, to  add  to  previous  gifts  enough  to  bring  them 
up  to  $50,000.00  as  soon  as  the  friends  of  the  Society 
would  raise  $100,000.00  more.  The  offer  was  grate- 
fully accepted  and  the  money  obtained.  Two  or  three 
years  ago  Dr.  Pearsons  added  another  $50,000.00  to 
his  gifts  without  any  conditions,  except  that  the 
work  already  carried  on  should  be  made  more  and 
more  efficient,  and  that  still  greater  care  be  taken  to 
reach  that  vast  class  in  the  city  which  needs  nothing 
so  much  as  the  Christian  education  imparted  by 
churches,  Sunday  schools,  Endeavor  Societies  and 
the  agencies  connected  with  them  or  growing  out  of 
them.  Only  the  income  of  the  somewhat  more  than 
$200,000.00  endowment  fund  of  the  Society  can  be 
used  each  year.  But  with  this  income  grounds  for 
new  work  can  be  secured,  aid  furnished  in  the  erec- 
tion of  buildings  or  in  needed  repairs,  in  the  payment 
of  taxes  and  for  such  enlargement  of  work  already 
begun  as  otherwise  would  be  impossible.  To  the 
invaluable  aid  furnished  by  Dr.  Pearsons  the  officers, 
directors  and  friends  of  the  Society  have  repeatedly 
given  emphatic  testimony. 

The  honored  and  efficient  Superintendent,  who 

80 


DECISION  TO  AID  COLLEGES 

has  been  with  the  Society  from  its  organization,  Dr. 
J.  C.  Armstrong,  writes:  "I  am  glad  to  bear  testi- 
mony to  the  indebtedness  of  the  Chicago  City  Mis- 
sionary Society  to  Dr.  Daniel  K.  Pearsons.  More 
than  25,000  members  have  been  gathered  into  its 
churches  in  twenty-eight  years,  and  there  are  now 
(November,  1910)  in  the  Sunday  schools  it  has 
aided  and  is  sustaining  more  than  20,000  children 
and  young  people.  Unborn  generations  will  share 
in  the  benefits  of  Dr.  Pearsons'  princely  gifts.  He 
has  made  himself  a  great  name  among  the  benefac- 
tors of  our  fellow-men.  His  splendid  insight  and 
unfaltering  purpose  to  help  his  fellow-men  at  the 
point  where  Christian  education  is  sure  to  be  of  the 
greatest  possible  benefit,  will  be  an  example  for 
years  to  come  which  men  and  women  of  wealth  will 
certainly  follow." 

It  is  doubtful  if  any  gift  he  has  ever  made  has 
been  or  will  continue  to  be  through  the  years  to 
come  more  fruitful  than  the  $100,000.00  thus  far 
entrusted  to  the  City  Missionary  Society.  It  will 
restrain  crime,  promote  good  works,  encourage  vir- 
tuous conduct  and  develop  Christian  character  in 
circles  which  without  it  would  hardly  have  been 
reached. 

These  early  gifts  to  institutions  in  or  near  Chicago 
stimulated  and  confirmed  a  purpose  long  cherished 
by  Dr.  Pearsons  of  retiring  from  business  at  the  age 
of  seventy  and  devoting  the  remaining  years  of  his 
life  to  the  giving  away,  or  rather  of  investing,  as  he 
has  preferred  to  call  it,  the  fortune  which  thirty 
6  81 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

years  of  economy,  strenuous  effort  and  prudent  use 
of  early  savings  had  brought  him.  He  desired  to  be 
his  own  executor.  He  refused  to  be  called  benevo- 
lent, denied  that  he  had  any  benevolence  in  his 
nature.  He  gave,  so  he  affirmed,  because  he  could 
not  take  his  money  with  him  beyond  the  grave, 
because  he  wished  to  invest  it  himself,  and  invest 
it  where  it  would  do  good  long  after  he  had  left  the 
world.  He  also  wanted  the  privilege  of  watching 
the  outcome  of  his  investments;  and  this  privilege 
he  has  enjoyed  to  the  full. 

At  the  outset  he  determined  to  be  independent  in 
his  giving,  to  give  as  he  himself  and  Mrs.  Pearsons, 
his  only  and  his  constant  adviser,  should  think  best. 
Not  a  few  people  who  felt  that  they  knew  better 
than  its  possessor  where  the  money  ought  to  go 
were  at  first  inclined  to  call  in  question  his  wisdom. 
To  criticisms  for  refusal  to  contribute  to  certain 
objects  he  replied:  "If  I  choose  to  give  away  what 
I  do  not  want,  I  rather  think  I  have  the  right.  I 
give  where  I  have  the  largest  satisfaction  in  the 
knowledge  that  it  is  doing  good,  instead  of  leaving 
my  money  to  be  quarrelled  over  when  I  am  gone." 

Soon  after  he  began  his  benefactions  to  colleges, 
he  made  it  known  that  he  was  disposing  of  his  prop- 
erty under  a  deep  sense  of  responsibility  to  God. 
"  Giving  is  my  only  occupation.  I  am  working  hard 
at  it.  I  kept  getting  rich  until  I  was  seventy,  and 
then  I  started  to  give  away  the  fortune  that  had 
been  placed  in  my  hands.  There  is  more  responsi- 
bility in  giving  away  money  than  in  making  it.  I 

82 


DECISION  TO  AID  COLLEGES 

am  responsible  for  the  just  distribution  of  the  great 
wealth  to  the  Providence  under  which  it  came  to 
me."  In  making  these  gifts  he  was  influenced  a 
very  great  deal  by  his  sympathy  with  the  laboring 
classes,  with  the  boys  and  girls  who  are  born  into 
the  families  of  working  people.  In  announcing  a  gift 
of  $50,000  to  the  Chicago  City  Missionary  Society 
he  made  this  the  chief  reason  for  the  gift.  He  had 
studied  its  work,  had  seen  how  constantly  and  suc- 
cessfully its  representatives  had  ministered  to  the 
poorer  classes  of  the  city,  with  what  wisdom  they 
were  trying  to  give  moral  instruction  to  children 
who  might  otherwise  be  left  to  roam  the  streets,  and 
foresaw  the  almost  unlimited  influence  for  good 
which  this  Society  properly  supported  might  exert. 
In  deciding  to  devote  the  larger  portion  of  his 
fortune  to  educational  purposes  he  had  in  mind  the 
needs  of  the  country  as  a  whole.  These  needs  he 
believed  would  be  more  fully  met  by  aiding  the 
smaller  colleges  scattered  over  the  country  than  by 
concentrating  his  gifts  upon  a  few  institutions  here 
and  there,  or  by  increasing  the  endowment  of  some 
great  eastern  university.  The  smaller  colleges,  he 
saw,  were  training  a  large  class  of  young  people  who 
could  not  afford  the  expense  of  an  education  in  one 
of  the  prominent  colleges  of  the  East.  This  was  a 
good  reason,  he  thought,  for  aiding  those  colleges 
in  the  West  and  South  which  had  proved  their  right 
to  live,  but  which  might  find  it  difficult  to  survive 
without  his  help.  "  Common  schools  excepted,"  he 
said,  after  he  had  given  the  subject  a  great  deal  of 

83 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

study,  "the  so-called  fresh- water  college  is  the 
greatest  educational  institution  in  America."  Hence 
his  determination  to  use  his  fortune  to  develop  these 
colleges,  and  so  far  as  possible  secure  for  them 
an  adequate  equipment.  In  these  colleges,  he  clearly 
saw,  were  gathered  the  young  people  from  whose 
ranks  must  come  the  future  leaders  of  the  country, 
in  education,  religion  and  patriotic  service.  Insen- 
sibly as  the  years  passed,  the  students  in  these  col- 
leges won  a  warm  place  in  his  heart.  He  began  to 
look  upon  them  as  his  own  children  and  to  consider 
how  he  could  treat  them  as  such.  His  thought  finds 
expression  in  one  of  his  addresses  in  the  following 
words:  "I've  got  the  smartest  set  of  boys  in  the 
world.  Flaxen-haired  boys  from  the  sod  houses  of 
the  mountains  and  the  prairie,  poor  boys  who  will 
appreciate  an  education  because  they  know  how 
hard  it  is  to  get.  They  can't  go  down  east  to  college 
and  I  am  trying  to  build  up  colleges  where  they  can 
go.  My  boys  are  the  very  smartest."  For  girls 
when  occasion  called  for  it,  he  had  an  equally  strong 
word. 

With  all  his  love  for  the  small  college  and  his 
conviction  that  in  certain  sections  of  the  country 
new  colleges  should  be  established,  he  has  never 
founded  a  college  or  suffered  one  to  be  called  after 
his  name.  He  felt,  indeed,  that  the  country  has  too 
many  colleges,  that  no  inconsiderable  number  of 
them  would  do  well  to  become  academies.  He  was 
struck  by  the  fact  that  too  many  of  the  states  had 
become  "college  graveyards."  Hence  the  rule  from 

84 


DECISION  TO  AID  COLLEGES 

which  there  was  no  deviation,  to  promise  no  aid  to 
an  institution  till  either  he  himself  or  those  in  whose 
wisdom  and  experience  he  had  full  confidence,  had 
thoroughly  investigated  its  condition.  The  location 
of  the  college,  its  proximity  to  other  colleges,  the 
character  of  the  work  done,  the  standing  of  the 
faculty,  the  promise  of  future  growth,  were  always 
carefully  considered. 

Decision  to  aid,  or  to  refuse  aid,  was  slowly  reached, 
but  once  made,  it  was  rarely  reversed.  In  order  to 
test  the  real  strength  of  a  college,  the  Doctor  almost 
always  made  his  gifts  conditional.  To  live  and  be 
useful  a  college  must  have  a  constituency  to  which 
whenever  need  for  increased  funds  arises,  it  may 
appeal.  To  obtain  his  gifts  the  friends  of  a  college 
by  a  certain  date  must  therefore  themselves  furnish 
a  certain  sum  of  money,  a  sum  large  enough  in  gen- 
eral to  tax  their  liberality  and  determine  their  loyalty 
to  the  institution  which  had  asked  assistance.  Diffi- 
cult as  these  conditions  have  sometimes  been  to 
meet,  experience  has  proved  their  wisdom,  for  in 
addition  to  the  money  received  in  its  campaigns  for 
funds  the  college  has  created  or  deepened  an  interest 
in  its  affairs  in  many  communities,  which  is  of  more 
value,  if  the  future  be  considered,  than  the  aid 
immediately  obtained. 


VII 

CONDITION  OF  THE  DENOMINATIONAL  COL- 
LEGES WHEN  DR.  PEARSONS  MADE  HIS 
FIRST  GIFTS  TO  THEM.  PRINCIPLES  UPON 
WHICH  THESE  GIFTS  HAVE  BEEN  MADE 


VII 

CONDITION  OF  THE  DENOMINATIONAL  COL- 
LEGES WHEN  DR.  PEARSONS  MADE  HIS 
FIRST  GIFTS  TO  THEM.  PRINCIPLES  UPON 
WHICH  THESE  GIFTS  HAVE  BEEN  MADE 

IT  IS  within  the  truth  to  say  that  during  the 
eighties,  the  decade  from  1880  to  1890,  nearly  all 
the  colleges  in  the  West  and  South  which  had 
been  founded  by  the  various  Christian  denominations 
were  financially  weak.  If  a  few  of  the  elder  of  these 
colleges  came  to  the  end  of  the  year  without  debt,  it 
was  rarely  done  without  aid  from  the  churches  or 
wealthy  friends.  For  the  majority  of  these  denomina- 
tional institutions  the  close  of  the  year  increased  the 
burden  resting  upon  them  at  its  beginning.  Debts 
were  steadily  becoming  larger.  Nor  was  there  any 
prospect  that  means  would  be  found  for  their  payment. 
To  a  few  of  these  small  Christian  colleges,  compara- 
tively large  gifts  had  come,  from  broad-minded  men  of 
wealth;  Congregationalists  had  been  favored  by  Mrs. 
Valeria  Stone,  in  the  distribution  of  the  fortune  which 
her  husband's  death  placed  at  her  disposal.  Yet  even 
from  the  most  promising  point  of  view  the  situation 
was  discouraging.  As  the  decade  drew  to  an  end, 

89 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

conditions  in  many  instances  were  becoming  more 
and  more  desperate.  The  rate  of  interest  on  endow- 
ments was  steadily  declining.  Many  of  the  older 
professors  in  the  colleges  had  passed  their  prime. 
There  was  money  at  command  neither  for  their 
retirement  on  well-earned  pensions,  nor  for  the  sup- 
port of  younger  men  to  take  their  places.  Nor  did 
trustees  see  any  way  to  provide  for  those  new  pro- 
fessorships which  the  times  called  for,  or  for  the  labo- 
ratories without  which  science  could  not  be  success- 
fully taught. 

To  make  matters  worse  for  the  small  college,  the 
state,  under  the  provisions  of  the  Morrill  Act  had 
begun  to  lay  the  foundations  of  those  universities 
which  have  had  such  rapid  growth,  have  done  such 
admirable  work,  and  which  now  occupy  such  a  prom- 
inent place  in  the  educational  world.  How  could  an 
institution  with  an  endowment  rarely  exceeding  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars,  more  frequently  with  less 
than  that  amount,  with  inadequate  buildings,  with 
little  scientific  apparatus,  with  few  or  no  men  in  the 
faculty  able  to  teach  science  had  facilities  for  teach- 
ing it  been  present,  compete  with  institutions  having 
the  wealth  of  a  state  behind  them,  and  ungrudgingly 
placed  at  their  disposal  ?  The  wonder  is  that  the  small 
college  did  not  at  once  give  up  in  despair.  Many  of 
the  friends  of  the  state  institution  said  that  the  small 
college  had  outlived  its  usefulness,  that  as  the  high 
school  was  so  generally  taking  the  place  of  the  acad- 
emy, or  of  privately  endowed  preparatory  schools, 
it  might  wisely  be  encouraged  to  extend  its  course  of 

90 


DENOMINATIONAL  COLLEGES 

study  so  as  to  embrace  subjects  usually  taught  in 
the  freshman  and  sophomore  years  in  college  and  then 
send  the  young  men  and  the  young  women  thus 
trained  directly  to  the  state  university.  Or  if  these 
smaller  colleges  are  not  at  once  given  up,  let  them 
voluntarily  cease  to  call  themselves  colleges,  and  take 
the  rank  of  secondary  schools  and  do  such  work  as 
may  be  called  for  by  those  students  to  whom  the  high 
school  in  the  cities  and  larger  towns  is  not  accessible. 
It  is  not  strange  that  to  many  of  its  warmest 
friends  the  outlook  for  the  small  college  seemed  des- 
perate. They  saw  clearly  that  even  if  Christian, 
and  favored  by  the  denomination  whose  name  it  bore 
it  would  not  long  survive,  unless  well  endowed,  and 
so  well  equipped  with  facilities  for  elementary  scien- 
tific study  at  least,  as  to  be  able  to  furnish  as  good 
or  even  better  instruction  than  the  state  university. 
To  be  sure  professors  in  the  small  college  would  be 
brought  into  closer  relations  with  the  student  than 
would  be  possible  in  the  larger  institution.  More 
emphasis  would  be  laid  on  morals  and  Christian 
character  in  the  small  college  than  in  the  university. 
But  it  was  replied,  there  are  no  charges  for  tuition  in 
the  state  universities.  Nor  is  there  any  prejudice 
there  against  religion.  The  views  of  the  different 
denominations  are  tolerated,  so  that  there  is  no  good 
reason  why  Christian  character  should  not  be  culti- 
vated in  the  larger  as  well  as  in  the  smaller  school. 
Many  were  ready  to  go  further  and  demand  the 
extinction  of  the  small  college  altogether.  They 
said  it  would  be  a  waste  of  funds  to  contribute  to  its 

91 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K  PEARSONS 

support.  Nor  can  there  be  any  doubt  of  the  sincer- 
ity with  which  many  of  these  objections  to  the 
continued  life  of  the  institution  which  had  done  so 
much  for  the  country  and  had  filled  such  a  prominent 
place  in  the  intellectual  development  of  the  West 
and  the  South  were  brought  forward.  A  new  day  had 
come.  With  it  had  come  a  demand  for  a  new  educa- 
tion, for  a  kind  of  training  along  practical  lines  which 
the  college  of  the  earlier  time  had  overlooked  or  had 
failed  to  see.  Young  people  must  be  prepared  for 
their  life  work.  Theory  must  give  place  to  reality; 
idealism  to  the  pressure  of  practical  life. 

Before  making  his  first  gift  to  a  Christian  college 
Dr.  Pearsons  saw  three  things  clearly:  First  that  the 
small  Christian  denominational  college  had  filled 
and  was  filling  a  place  in  our  educational  system  as 
important  to  the  welfare  of  the  country  as  the  common 
school.  This  conviction  had  come  to  him  as  the 
result  of  long-continued  observation  and  careful 
study.  He  saw,  further,  that  to  do  its  work  well  this 
small  college  must  be  amply  endowed  and  furnished 
with  such  facilities  in  the  way  of  buildings  and  equip- 
ment as  the  education  and  training  it  was  seeking 
to  give  might  demand.  He  saw  also  that  in  order  to 
save  the  college  from  future  disaster,  its  endowment 
must  be  obtained  in  such  a  way  as  to  create  for  it  a 
constituency  of  graduates  and  lovers  of  learning  upon 
which  it  could  depend  in  the  future.  Hence,  the  con- 
ditions upon  which  he  made  his  offers  of  help.  If  at 
the  beginning  they  seemed  onerous,  it  soon  became 
apparent  that  in  meeting  them  the  college  was  making 


DENOMINATIONAL  COLLEGES 

for  itself  more  permanent  gains  than  in  securing  the 
money  it  sought. 

Probably  even  Dr.  Pearsons  did  not  foresee  the 
significance  and  full  extent  of  the  service  he  would 
render  in  his  deliberate  effort  to  save  the  small 
Christian  college  from  extinction. 

With  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  educational 
situation  at  the  end  of  the  eighties,  and  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineties,  he  began  that  careful  investiga- 
tion of  the  condition  of  the  colleges,  seminaries  and 
high  schools  in  the  different  states  of  the  Union  and 
that  special  study  either  in  person  or  through  trusted 
agents  of  each  particular  institution  desiring  aid, 
which  here  marked  his  career  as  the  founder  of  the 
Christian  college.  Comparatively  few  of  the  colleges 
applying  to  him  for  help  received  it.  He  gave  only 
to  institutions  which  had  in  them  the  promise  of  life 
and  growth,  and  were  so  situated  as  through  their  stu- 
dents to  minister  to  a  wide  extent  of  territory.  He 
was  careful  not  to  give  to  any  large  number  of  colleges 
in  any  single  state.  A  glance  at  the  list  at  the  end  of 
Chapter  XV  indicates  the  location  of  the  schools,  sem- 
inaries and  colleges  which  have  been  aided  by  him, 
and  shows  how  large  a  portion  of  the  country  in  the 
distribution  of  his  fortune  he  has  sought  to  reach. 

When  satisfied  that  his  money  would  be  wisely 
used  and  would  bring  swift  return,  no  man  has  ever 
been  more  ready  to  give  than  he.  Thus  he  writes 
the  Eaton  Brothers,  who  were  trying  to  establish  an 
institution  for  higher  education  and  for  practical 
training  in  Montana.  "I  have  been  waiting  for 

93 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K  PEARSONS 

Montana  for  years:  if  I  give  $25,000.00  toward  an 
endowment  for  $100,000.00,  can  you  secure  $75,- 
000.00?"  To  this  question  an  affirmative  answer  was 
returned  and  the  money  soon  obtained.  Such  per- 
sons as  Mrs.  Cyrus  McCormick  of  Chicago,  the  late 
John  H.  Converse  of  Philadelphia,  F.  August  Heinze 
of  Pittsburgh,  Senator  Clark  of  Montana,  Andrew 
Carnegie  of  New  York,  and  many  others  seemed  to 
take  delight  in  furnishing  it.  The  college  has  made 
rapid  strides,  has  a  large  and  promising  body  of 
students,  several  good  buildings,  a  fine  faculty,  a 
growing  endowment  and  a  bright  outlook  for  the 
future.  It  is  under  the  care  of  the  Presbyterians,  but 
is  free  from  anything  like  sectarianism.  It  is  not 
strange  that  in  following  the  mission  of  that  gift  of 
$25,000.00  Dr.  Pearsons  has  had  great  pleasure. 

It  would  be  surprising  if  he  had  not  sometimes  been 
disappointed  in  the  results  of  his  giving.  "The 
greatest  sorrow,  I  recall,"  he  once  said,  "was  when  I 
advanced  a  large  amount  of  money  to  put  a  brilliant 
young  man  through  college.  He  promised  to  pay 
me  back,  in  fact,  gave  me  his  note.  But  I  found 
that  he  never  intended  to  pay  me.  It  doesn't  pay 
to  help  young  men  through  college  that  way.  I  have 
tried  it  dozens  of  times.  I  help  them  through  college 
with  my  money,  but  they  do  not  pay  me  back;  they 
don't  try  to  pay.  It  is  little  to  me,  but  it  is  bad  for 
them.  It  is  a  calamity.  It  destroys  the  initiative. 
The  boy  or  girl  who  is  determined  to  get  through 
college  cannot  be  restrained  by  any  difficulty.  Such 
people  will  work  their  way  through  untold  hardships." 

94 


DENOMINATIONAL  COLLEGES 

Let  a  leaf  be  taken  out  of  his  own  experience.  In  re- 
counting it  he  says :  "  For  five  years  I  boarded  myself, 
baked  my  own  Johnnie  cake,  cooked  my  own  pota- 
toes, fried  my  own  meat.  For  five  years  I  depended 
upon  myself  entirely  and  during  that  time  I  waxed 
fat  in  the  doing  of  it,  and  was  well  and  hearty  at  all 
times." 

The  kind  of  personal  aid  the  Doctor  enjoyed  giv- 
is  indicated  in  words  uttered  in  the  parlor  of 
his  house  in  Hinsdale.  "Up-stairs  in  my  sitting- 
room  are  two  young  girls  from  Berea.  They  came 
here  last  week,  and  I  am  paying  them  good  wages 
to  do  my  housework.  Two  others  who  had  earned 
$150.00  each,  left  here  a  few  days  ago  to  go  back  and 
finish  out  their  course  at  the  college.  When  the  two 
that  are  here  have  earned  enough,  they  will  return 
also,  and  two  others  will  come  to  take  their  places. 
That's  the  kind  of  help  I  believe  in  giving.  It  lifts 
up.  It  lets  the  sun  shine  into  my  own  heart  and 
theirs  too,  and  it  is  sending  out  into  the  world  men 
and  women  who  will  take  rank  with  the  best  of  us." 
It  was  indeed  a  rare  privilege  to  live  in  a  home  like  that 
of  Dr.  Pearsons  and  to  be  under  the  influence  of  a 
woman  like  Mrs.  Pearsons,  who  spared  no  pains  to 
give  such  instruction  in  housekeeping  as  was  needed 
and  who  in  every  way  took  the  place  of  a  mother  to 
the  girls  who  lived  with  her,  and  in  her  quiet  and 
refined  way  imparted  to  them  a  goodly  share  of  her 
own  beautiful  character. 

And  yet  the  Doctor  could  say  and  say  it  truth- 
fully: "I  do  not  believe  in  charity.  It  destroys  self- 

95 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

respect  and  does  no  good.  My  principle  is  to  give 
other  people  an  opportunity.  I  have  hundreds  of 
applications  for  mere  charity,  but  I  pay  no  attention 
to  them.  My  work  is  merely  a  business  proposition. 
It  is  the  investment  out  of  which  I  get  the  best 
returns."  This  statement  was  made  when  the  Doctor 
was  eighty-five  years  of  age.  For  this  reason  he  was 
never  willing  to  be  called  a  benevolent  man.  He  gave, 
he  said,  as  an  investment  whose  returns  were  to  be 
looked  for  in  the  moral  and  intellectual  training  of 
poor  young  men  and  women. 

"Benevolent?  Do  you  call  me  benevolent? 
Look  at  me.  I  am  the  most  close-fisted,  economical 
man  you  ever  set  eyes  on.  I  never  wasted  twenty  dol- 
lars in  my  life.  I  never  went  to  a  theatre  but  once 
in  my  life,  and  then  I  was  ashamed  of  myself.  I 
never  went  to  a  horse  race,  nor  a  base-ball  game,  nor 
a  foot-ball  game.  I  live  simply,  frugally.  I  shall 
live  longer  and  better  and  more  happily  by  living 
simply.  And  if  I  choose  to  give  away  what  I  do 
not  want,  I  rather  think  I  have  the  right.  I  give 
where  I  have  the  largest  satisfaction  in  the  knowl- 
edge that  it  is  doing  good,  instead  of  leaving  my 
money  to  be  quarrelled  over  when  I  am  dead.  Do 
you  call  that  benevolence?"  A  great  many  would, 
and  taking  all  things  into  account,  would  not  be  far 
out  of  the  way  in  doing  so.  At  any  rate,  the  more 
men  there  are  who  imitate  Dr.  Pearsons  in  the  way  he 
has  taken  to  settle  his  own  estate,  the  better  will  it  be 
for  the  world.  On  his  eightieth  birthday  he  said, 
"I  believe  my  plan  of  bestowing  what  I  have  to  give 

96 


DENOMINATIONAL  COLLEGES 

before  my  death  will  be  adopted  by  those  who  have 
money  to  give.  It  is  the  simplest  and  best  way.  I 
flatter  myself  that  I  was  the  first  to  commence  the 
plan.  Anyway  I  have  found  it  the  best  method, 
and  I  am  satisfied." 

In  the  distribution  of  his  fortune  the  Doctor  has 
displayed  the  same  remarkable  business  ability  and 
self-restraint  which  were  so  prominent  in  his  business 
life  and  contributed  so  much  to  his  success.  He  did 
not  undertake  to  meet  all  the  demands,  which  appar- 
ently with  reason  might  be  made  upon  him.  As  a 
rule  he  gave  little  heed  to  many  of  them.  He 
knew  what  he  could  do,  and  to  the  doing  of  that 
one  thing  he  confined  his  thought.  "When  I  began 
this  enterprise  of  giving  away  money,  I  made  up 
my  mind  that  I  would  have  but  one  string  to  my 
bow.  I  said  to  myself  that  the  churches  and  the  socie- 
ties should  care  for  their  own.  For  my  part  I  would 
save  souls  by  developing  brains.  This  is  my  text." 
To  this  rule  Dr.  Pearsons  invariably  adhered.  Ap- 
peals to  break  away  from  it  did  no  good.  Temp- 
tations to  do  so,  to  which  many  a  man  would  have 
yielded,  he  steadily  resisted.  In  this  way  he  was 
able  to  continue  his  gifts  through  a  period  of  more 
than  twenty-two  years,  and  in  every  instance  to 
put  his  money  where  he  had  ample  reason  to  believe 
it  would  do  the  most  good.  Where  he  knew  others 
would  help,  or  had  abundant  means  for  doing  so, 
he  declined  to  give.  Where  personal  interests  were 
chiefly  concerned,  or  institutions  were  in  rivalry 
with  one  another,  he  declined  aid. 
7  97 


VIII 
GIFTS  TO  ILLINOIS  INSTITUTIONS 


VIII 
GIFTS  TO  ILLINOIS  INSTITUTIONS 

FOR  some  time  before  he  had  begun  to  make 
the  distribution  of  his  fortune  the  business 
of  his  life,  Dr.  Pearsons  built  four  houses, 
and  turned  them  over  to  the  Woman's  Educa- 
tional Aid  Association  of  Evanston  for  the  sup- 
port of  young  women  who  were  seeking  an  educa- 
tion at  the  Northwestern  University.  Before  doing 
this,  the  Doctor  had  paid  for  the  support  of  seven 
young  girls,  but  had  tired  of  providing  the  money 
in  installments  every  year,  and  as  he  had  discov- 
ered, as  he  thought,  the  ability  of  the  members  of 
the  Association  to  manage  property  entrusted  to 
them,  he  proposed  at  first  to  build  two  houses, 
provided  the  site  could  be  secured  and  then  two  more, 
the  women  to  collect  the  rent,  keep  the  houses  in 
good  repair  and  out  of  the  profits  meet  the  expenses 
of  as  many  young  women  as  possible.  The  plan 
was  entirely  successful,  and  in  every  way  satisfac- 
tory. Many  years  afterwards  representatives  of 
this  association  came  to  him  for  further  aid  and  as 
one  of  the  reasons  for  their  appeal,  gave  the  history 
of  some  of  the  more  than  one  hundred  girls  who  had 

101 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

been  aided  through  the  income  from  his  previous 
gifts.  Surprised  at  the  story,  deeply  interested  in 
it,  he  replied  that  he  thought  he  was  receiving  credit 
which  did  not  belong  to  him,  as  he  had  no  recollec- 
tion of  having  made  any  gift  to  the  women  of  Evans- 
ton.  They  said  they  could  not  be  mistaken,  and 
left  the  Doctor  with  a  promise  from  him  that  he  would 
consider  their  appeal.  After  a  careful  search  through 
note-books  long  before  laid  aside,  entries  were  found 
here  and  there  referring  to  houses  in  Evanston,  built 
for  the  Woman's  Education  Aid  Association.  It 
was  not  difficult  to  persuade  him  to  spend  thirty 
thousand  dollars  more  for  a  Hall,  which  he  named 
Chapin  Hall,  after  Miss  Julia  A.  Chapin,  the  sister 
of  Mrs.  Pearsons.  This  Hall  is  always  full  and  has 
been  of  great  service  in  furnishing  a  home  to  young 
women  who  find  it  necessary  to  economize  to  obtain 
an  education.  The  Doctor  was  present  at  the  dedi- 
cation of  the  building  and  was  greatly  pleased  with 
its  appearance,  and  its  promise  of  usefulness.  The 
motto  of  the  Association: 

"Opportunity  for  service  is  our  greatest  blessing, 
and  to  improve  that  opportunity  will  make  for  our 
best  development,"  is  a  motto  whose  meaning  Dr. 
Pearsons  has  himself  strikingly  illustrated. 

In  1889  Dr.  Pearsons  gave  Lake  Forest  Univer- 
sity the  sum  of  $100,000.00  on  condition  that  $400,- 
000.00  more  be  raised,  as  an  endowment,  and  that 
one  half  of  the  money  he  gave  should  be  used  as  a 
loan  fund  for  needy  students,  no  one  of  them  to  re- 
ceive more  than  $100.00  a  year,  and  the  whole  to  be 

102 


GIFTS  TO  ILLINOIS  INSTITUTIONS 

paid  back  within  a  reasonable  time  after  graduation. 
The  remainder  of  the  gift  was  to  be  set  aside  for  the 
support  of  a  professorhip.  That  loan  fund  increased 
by  gifts  to  other  institutions  to  about  $150,000.00, 
has  produced  very  gratifying  results.  Not  many 
young  men  have  failed  to  meet  their  obligations,  and 
as  a  small  interest  has  been  charged,  the  fund  has 
steadily  increased.  The  suggestion  of  such  a  fund 
came  to  Dr.  Pearsons  from  his  own  experience  as  a 
medical  student,  when  a  small  loan  enabled  him  to 
graduate. 

The  prominence  of  this  University,  now  called 
Lake  Forest  College,  justifies  the  taking  of  space 
to  present  in  full  a  report  of  the  effect  of  Dr.  Pearsons' 
gifts  as  made  by  Dr.  J.  G.  R.  McClure,  then  its  Pres- 
ident. This  account  shows  what  these  gifts  have 
done  for  other  colleges  of  the  country,  as  well  as  Lake 
Forest,  not  only  in  the  amount  they  have  added  to 
their  funds,  but  in  bringing  to  them  other  and  larger 
gifts.  Dr.  McClure  writes: 

"  GIFTS  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS  TO  LAKE  FOREST 
UNIVERSITY. 

"  1889.  $100,000.00.  Property  Endowment,  consist- 
ing of  six  brick  and  stone  houses,  No's 
1215,  1217,  1219,  1221,  1223,  and  1225 
North  State  Street,  and  a  six  apartment 
flat  building,  No's  5, 7,  and  9  Scott  Street, 
Chicago.  Lake  Forest  University  still 
owns  this  property  intact  and  in  good 
condition. 

103 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

"  1901.  $25,000.00  Cash.  Incorporated  with  the  per- 
manent endowment  of  Lake  Forest  Uni- 
versity. 

"Conditions  attached  to  the  gift  of  $100,000.00  in 

1889: 

"I.  That  half  the  amount  be  used  for  a  foundation 
of  a  Professorship  of  Political  Economy  and  Social 
Science,  and  the  income  from  the  other  half  be  loaned 
to  students  needing  aid  in  their  collegiate  course,  at 
3%  interest,  the  total  loans  for  one  year  not  to  exceed 
$3,000.00.  These  conditions  have  been  met:  First, 
in  the  establishment,  by  action  of  the  Trustees  of 
Lake  Forest  University  on  June  25,  1889,  of  the 
'D.  K.  Pearsons  Chair  of  Political  and  Social 
Science5 ; 

"  Second :  in  the  continuous  operation  since  1889  of 
the  Pearsons  'Loan  Fund,'  from  which  loans  have 
been  granted  to  worthy  students  in  sums  not  exceed- 
ing $100  for  one  student  in  any  year. 

"  II.  That  a  total  of  $400,000.00  new  endowment  be 
raised,  in  addition  to  Dr.  Pearsons'  gift.  This  con- 
dition was  also  met. 

"  The  effects  produced  by  this  gift  were,  immediately, 
to  assure  the  success  of  the  first  great  effort  for  the 
permanent  endowment  of  Lake  Forest  University; 
and,  subsequently,  to  endow  the  chair  held  by  Pro- 
fessor John  J.  Halsey,  who  has  given  the  longest  and 
most  distinguished  service  on  the  Faculty  of  Lake 
Forest  College  in  its  history;  and  to  aid  252  worthy 
students  from  1889  to  1910  in  the  gaining  of  an  edu- 

104 


GIFTS  TO  ILLINOIS  INSTITUTIONS 

cation.  Up  to  September  30,  1910,  these  students 
had  borrowed  a  total  of  $40,439.50  from  the  income 
of  the  Pearsons  Fund,  and  repaid  $18,378.20  of  prin- 
cipal and  $6,294.19  of  interest.  Loans  to  the  amount 
of  $21,986.30  (one  note  only  surrendered)  are  still 
outstanding,  in  the  form  of  notes,  upon  which  interest 
is  being  paid.  During  the  twenty  years  of  the  opera- 
tion of  the  Pearsons  Loan  Fund,  no  application  from 
a  worthy  student  for  aid  has  ever  been  refused.  The 
maximum  amount  loaned  in  one  year  was  $2,750.00. 
Condition  attached  to  the  gift  of  $25,000.00  in  1911: 

"That  a  total  of  $100,000.00  of  new  endowment 
be  raised  in  addition  to  the  gift.  This  condition 
was  met. 

"The  effect  of  this  gift  was  to  stimulate  the  friends 
of  Lake  Forest  to  the  completion  of  an  important 
addition  to  the  permanent  endowment." 

It  should  here  be  said  that  this  gift  of  $25,000.00 
on  condition  that  $100,000.00  more  be  raised  was 
promised  to  Dr.  McClure,  personally,  and  that  the 
sum  was  secured  almost  entirely  by  his  personal 
solicitation.  "A  happier  man  than  he,"  he  writes, 
"when  the  sum  required  was  subscribed,  has  never 
been  known."  It  was  this  addition  of  $125,000.00 
to  the  endowment  of  Lake  Forest,  which  secured 
permanency  to  its  life  and  made  possible  the  develop- 
ments which  followed. 

A  very  timely  gift  of  $20,000.00  was  made  to  the 
Grand  Prairie  Seminary,  Onarga,  Illinois,  in  1900. 
The  Honorable  W.  A.  Rankin  had  offered  $25,000.00 
for  endowment  provided  $100,000.00  were  obtained. 

105 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

President  Frost  says  that  undoubtedly  the  effort 
would  have  failed  but  for  Dr.  Pearsons'  gift.  That 
endowment  the  President  thinks  was  "the  saving  of 
the  school  for  larger  usefulness.  It  is  quite  a  question 
whether  it  would  have  been  open  for  work  today  had 
not  that  endowment  been  obtained.  At  present  the 
school  has  an  endowment  of  nearly  a  quarter  of  a 
million  in  sight,  and  bids  fair  to  become  a  permanent 
institution  for  secondary  work."  This  Seminary  is 
one  of  the  best  Methodist  Schools  in  the  State. 

Illinois  College  has  received  $50,000.00  from  Dr. 
Pearsons.  Some  of  the  friends  of  the  college  thought 
the  conditions  upon  which  the  gift  was  secured  were 
rather  severe,  but  they  admit  that  the  money-raising 
campaign  enlarged  its  constituency.  President  Ram- 
melskamp  is  sure  that  "Dr.  Pearsons  has  done  a 
great  work  for  the  small  colleges.  He  was  a  pioneer 
in  the  movement  in  favor  of  them.  No  man  did  more 
to  combat  the  notion  that  the  day  of  the  small  college 
was  over  than  Dr.  Pearsons.  His  gifts  aided  the 
colleges  and  at  the  same  time  drew  public  attention 
to  the  work  they  were  doing  and  to  the  important 
place  they  fill  in  our  system  of  education." 

Dr.  John  F.  Harmon,  President  of  McKendree 
College  (Methodist)  at  Lebanon,  Illinois,  declares 
that  he  has  no  language  at  command  to  set  forth  the 
service  which  Dr.  Pearsons  has  rendered  that  insti- 
tution. "Founded  in  1828,  and  therefore  one  of  the 
oldest  colleges  in  the  State,  until  Dr.  Pearsons  came 
to  the  rescue,  it  struggled  along  with  great  difficulty, 
wholly  unable  to  rise  to  her  opportunities,  in  spite 

106 


GIFTS  TO  ILLINOIS  INSTITUTIONS 

of  the  fact  that  it  has  graduated  men  of  national 
fame." 

September  20,  1905,  Dr.  Pearsons  gave  the  college 
$20,000.00,  which,  with  $80,000.00  secured  as  a 
condition  of  receiving  this  sum  of  money,  made  an 
endowment  of  $100,000.00.  That  was  the  beginning 
of  a  new  day  for  the  college.  Many  new  friends  were 
found,  and  new  hopes  were  inspired.  July  23,  1906, 
Dr.  Pearsons  wrote:  "I  will  give  you  $10,000.00  as 
soon  as  you  get  $75,000.00.  You  need  a  dormitory 
and  also  a  building  for  poor  boys  and  girls  to  board 
themselves."  The  college  failed  to  raise  the  money 
within  the  year  allowed,  but  in  October,  1909,  the 
offer  was  renewed  and  over  $90,000.00  were  obtained, 
so  that  April  10, 1910,  the  Doctor  sent  $10,000.00  to 
the  President  of  the  College.  Other  friends  added  a 
little  later,  $3,000.00  more,  so  that  three  modern 
up-to-date  brick  buildings  are  now  standing  on  the 
campus.  Governor  Deneen,  by  his  personal  gifts 
has  added  twenty  acres  to  the  campus,  and  a  St. 
Louis  friend  has  added  six  acres  more  for  field  sports. 
With  several  new  buildings,  and  the  old  ones  reno- 
vated, the  college  is  now  enjoying  an  era  of  great  pros- 
perity. A  spirit  of  enthusiasm  unlike  any  previously 
existing  is  showing  itself  among  the  students,  whose 
numbers  have  been  greatly  increased.  A  finance 
committee,  of  which  Governor  Deneen  is  Chair- 
man, has  been  organized  in  every  county  in  the  South- 
ern section  of  the  State,  in  order  to  obtain  still  more 
money.  But  the  President  writes, — "Dr.  Pearsons 
has  saved  the  college.  The  good  which  he  has  done 

107 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

in  helping  McKendree  will  last  through  the  ages. 
We  do  not  know  how  to  thank  him  enough.  His 
gift  was  made  at  the  right  time  and  under  conditions 
which  could  be  met,  but  which  called  for  an  amount  of 
effort  and  personal  sacrifice  which  endeared  the  col- 
lege to  its  old  friends,  and  created  for  it  a  multitude 
of  new  friends." 

To  this  College  the  Doctor  added,  in  response 
to  a  request  from  Governor  Deneen,  a  gift  of  ten 
thousand  dollars  just  before  his  ninety-first  birth- 
day. 

The  proposal  to  give  Knox  College  $50,000.00  in 
1889  marks  the  change  which  afterwards  took  place 
in  the  conditions  made  in  this  one  of  the  earliest 
gifts  to  the  college  and  those  which  followed  in  later 
years.  The  proposal  was  read  by  Dr.  Robert  W. 
Patterson,  one  of  the  Trustees  of  the  college  and  for 
more  than  a  generation  Pastor  of  the  Second  Presby- 
terian Church  of  Chicago.  Evidently  the  proposal 
was  presented  in  language  which  indicated  a  desire 
to  preserve  the  denominational  character  of  the 
college.  The  proposal  read  as  follows: 

"  CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  May  27,  1889. 
"To  the  Trustees  of  Knox  College, 

Galesburg,  Illinois. 

"I  intend  to  give  an  income-paying  property  in 
Chicago,  valued  at  $50,000.00,  to  your  Knox  College, 
the  income  to  be  used: 

"First:  In  endowing  a  professorship  in  Latin  or 
some  other. 

108 


GIFTS  TO  ILLINOIS  INSTITUTIONS 

"Second:  To  furnish  a  fund  to  be  loaned  to  poor 
and  worthy  students  at  the  rate  of  One  Hundred  Dol- 
lars a  year  during  the  regular  classical  course  of  four 
years  at  three  per  cent  interest  annually,  no  student 
to  receive  help  unless  he  pursues  a  regular  college 
course. 

"It  is  herein  provided,  however,  that  the  following 
conditions  must  be  strictly  observed  and  fulfilled  by 
the  Trustees  of  Knox  College,  and  that  in  case  they 
are  not  observed  and  fulfilled,  the  property  aforesaid, 
or  the  avails  from  the  sale  thereof,  shall  revert  to  the 
donor,  his  heirs  or  assigns,  and  shall  no  longer  be 
held  or  in  any  manner  controlled  by  said  Board  of 
Trustees,  to  wit: 

"  1st :  Not  less  than  two-thirds  of  said  Trustees  shall 
be  members  of  some  evangelical  church  or  churches. 

"  2nd :  The  Board  shall  embrace  a  number  of  mem- 
bers of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States 
of  America,  at  least  equal  to  that  of  any  one  denomi- 
nation connected  with  it,  excepting  in  the  case  of 
vacancies  occurring  in  said  number  by  death,  removal 
from  the  State  or  other  cause,  which  vacancies  must 
be  filled  so  as  to  meet  the  requirements  of  this  condi- 
tion at  or  before  the  next  annual  meeting  of  the  Board 
after  such  vacancies  have  become  known  to  the 
Board. 

"3rd:  Neither  of  the  foregoing  conditions  shall  be 
changed  without  the  written  consent  and  approval 
of  at  least  two-thirds  of  the  members  of  the  Board. 

"  4th :  Before  the  actual  conveyance  of  the  property 
aforesaid  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  Knox  College 

109 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

by  the  donor,  the  Board  shall  at  a  regular  meeting 
signify  its  acceptance  of  the  property  on  the  condi- 
tions herein  defined  and  approved,  and  shall  cause 
this  acceptance  with  the  conditions  to  be  placed  on 
its  permanent  records. 

DANIEL  K.  PEARSONS. 
"Addendum. 

In  case  any  portion  of  said  income  should  not  be 
desired  by  the  students  on  the  terms  aforesaid,  the 
Trustees  may  apply  same  for  any  year  in  the  purchase 
of  additional  apparatus,  or  for  the  enlargement  of  the 
college  library,  but  in  no  case  shall  this  be  used  for 
other  purposes  if  it  is  needed  by  promising  students. 

DANIEL  K.  PEARSONS." 

The  proposition  of  Dr.  Pearsons  was  presented  to 
the  Board  at  its  annual  meeting  June  11,  1889,  and 
the  following  resolution  was  passed  with  reference 
to  it: 

"Be  it  resolved,  by  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  Knox 
College  in  regular  annual  session  assembled: 

"First,  that  the  gift  of  Dr.  Daniel  K.  Pearsons  of 
Chicago,  Illinois,  contained  in  his  proposition  of 
May  27,  1889,  be  and  the  same  is  hereby  accepted 
on  the  terms  and  conditions  therein  contained,  and 

"Second,  that  the  Board  unanimously  express  to 
the  generous  donor  of  this  most  timely  gift  their 
heartfelt  thanks  and  high  appreciation  of  the  gift 
and  the  giver; 

"Third,  that  these  resolutions  be  spread  upon  the 
records  of  the  Board. 

110 


GIFTS  TO  ILLINOIS  INSTITUTIONS 

"On  motion  the  resolutions  were  unanimously 
adopted." 

President  McClelland  writes  that  so  far  as  the 
records  show,  no  conditions  requiring  a  contingent 
to  be  raised  were  attached  to  this  offer. 

June  9,  1892,  the  minutes  show  the  reception  of  an 
additional  proposition  from  Dr.  Pearsons.  "The 
Board  of  Trustees  had  met  on  the  platform  to  listen 
to  the  closing  exercises  of  the  graduating  classes, 
and  the  exercises  having  been  satisfactory,  the  de- 
grees were  conferred  as  voted.  Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons 
of  Chicago  was  present  and  made  a  written  proposi- 
tion to  endow  Knox  College  with  Fifty  Thousand 
Dollars  in  Chicago  Real  Estate,  providing  Knox 
College  raises  Two  Hundred  Thousand  Dollars  ($200,- 
000.00)  additional  to  go  with  it,  and  he  gives  the 
College  two  years  to  secure  the  $200,000.00.  The 
proposition  was  received  with  cheers,  and  it  was  voted : 

'"Resolved  that  the  noble  gift  of  $50,000. 00  tendered 
by  Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons  of  Chicago,  Illinois,  be  and  is 
hereby  accepted  with  sincere  thanks  and  with  feelings 
of  profound  gratitude,  and  that  we  hereby  pledge 
our  utmost  efforts  to  the  complete  fulfillment  of 
every  condition  of  his  offer.'  ' 

Owing  to  the  financial  conditions  prevailing  in  the 
country,  it  was  found  impossible  to  meet  these  con- 
ditions. The  offer  was  renewed  and  the  time  ex- 
tended, and  when  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  had 
been  obtained  Dr.  Pearsons  gave  the  college  twenty- 
five  thousand  dollars,  thus  making  his  gifts  to  it 
seventy-five  thousand  dollars  in  all. 

Ill 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

"It  is  hard  to  see,"  writes  the  President,  "how  the 
Institution  could  have  maintained  itself,  but  for  the 
timely  and  generous  assistance  which  Dr.  Pearsons 
gave  it." 

To  Knox  as  to  many  other  colleges,  the  offers  he 
made  furnished  the  impulse  needed  to  encourage 
Trustees  and  Professors  to  put  forth  the  effort  re- 
quired to  increase  the  endowment,  and  when  the 
money  was  obtained,  they  felt  that  the  college  not 
only  had  friends,  whose  generosity  it  had  not  fully 
appreciated,  but  that  they  were  under  a  new  and 
greater  obligation  than  ever  to  make  the  college 
worthy  of  the  support  of  the  men  and  women  who 
had  come  to  its  rescue. 

Several  deserving  colleges  in  the  State  have  failed 
to  receive  aid  from  the  Doctor,  not  because  he  did 
not  recognize  their  claims  for  consideration,  but 
because  he  had  determined  to  give  aid  to  only  two 
colleges  in  a  state.  Having  made  an  exception  of 
Illinois,  and  aided  five  colleges,  one  secondary  school, 
and  two  Theological  Seminaries  within  its  bounds, 
he  felt  that  in  justice  to  other  states  he  could  not 
extend  the  list.  His  example,  however,  has  led  others 
to  take  some  of  these  needy  colleges  on  their  hearts 
and  to  exert  themselves  successfully  to  procure  the 
funds  which  have  enlarged  their  endowment  and 
increased  their  efficiency. 


112 


IX 
GIFTS  FOR  INSTITUTIONS  EAST  OF  CHICAGO 


IX 

GIFTS  FOR  INSTITUTIONS  EAST  OF  CHICAGO 

WHEN  Dr.  Pearsons  began  his  gifts  to  colleges 
he  had  decided  to  confine  them  to  schools 
and  colleges  in  Illinois,  or  in  states  west 
of  it.  He  felt  that  the  East  was  able  to  care  for 
itself,  and  that  his  mission  was  to  provide,  so 
far  as  his  means  would  permit,  for  those  centers  of 
learning  which,  having  sprung  up  in  a  new  country, 
had  been  unable  to  establish  themselves  upon  a  self- 
supporting  basis.  For  several  years  he  remained 
firm  in  his  decision  to  give  no  money  to  any  insti- 
tution east  of  Chicago,  but  appeals  from  points  in 
Michigan,  Ohio,  Massachusetts  and  Vermont  became 
so  pressing  that  he  could  not  refuse  to  consider  them. 

OLIVET  COLLEGE,  MICHIGAN 

Olivet  College  is  the  only  Congregational  college 
in  Michigan.  From  the  pine  forests  of  the  state  he 
had  obtained  a  goodly  portion  of  his  fortune.  Presi- 
dent Sperry,  then  at  the  head  of  Olivet  College, 
asked  him  if  having  taken  so  much  money  away  from 
Michigan  he  did  not  feel  that  he  would  be  justified 

115 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

in  sending  a  little  of  it  back  to  help  in  the  endowment 
of  one  of  its  prosperous,  yet  very  needy  colleges. 
After  studying  the  situation  carefully,  the  location  of 
the  college,  its  relation  to  other  institutions  of  similar 
grade  in  the  state,  the  number  and  character  of  its 
students,  the  ability  and  self-denying  work  of  its 
faculty,  he  saw  clearly  that  it  would  be  quite  in 
accordance  with  his  original  plan  of  distributing  his 
fortune  where  it  would  do  the  most  good  to  aid  in  the 
strenuous  effort  the  college  was  making  to  add  $100,- 
000.00  to  its  modest  endowment.  Hence  his  pledge 
of  $25,000.00,  provided  $75,000.00  more  were  secured 
within  a  year.  The  effort  was  successful  and  the  col- 
lege placed  on  its  feet.  In  reference  to  this  gift  from 
Dr.  Pearsons,  President  Lancaster,  under  date  of 
November  15, 1910,  writes:  "the  money  was  invested 
as  an  endowment  fund  and  has  benefited  us  to 
the  amount  of  six  per  cent  on  that  amount  since  he 
gave  it,  and  will  continue  to  do  so  for  all  time,  the 
rate  of  interest  only  changing  possibly.  The  college 
could  not  exist  without  the  hundred  thousand  dollar 
endowment,  which  was  completed  at  that  time. 
It  means,  then,  that  Dr.  Pearsons  practically  saved 
the  life  of  the  institution." 

Olivet  has  grown  steadily,  and  although  a  small 
college,  and  connected  with  a  denomination,  it  has 
shown  that  notwithstanding  the  overpowering  influ- 
ence of  the  University  of  Michigan,  there  is  a  demand 
for  its  work  and  for  other  colleges  of  similar  standing 
in  the  state.  Olivet  has  always  been  an  earnestly 
Christian,  but  never  a  sectarian  college.  It  has  main- 

116 


GIFTS  FOR  INSTITUTIONS 

tained  a  high  standard  of  scholarship,  has  sought 
to  develop  character  in  its  students,  and  has  been 
content  to  remain  and  fill  the  place  of  a  small  college. 

MARIETTA  COLLEGE,  OHIO 

It  was  with  more  than  usual  difficulty  that  Dr. 
Pearsons  convinced  himself  that  he  ought  to  give 
$25,000.00  to  Marietta  College.  Why  should  one  of 
the  oldest  colleges  in  the  rich  state  of  Ohio  come  to  him 
for  assistance?  A  college  with  such  a  number  of 
distinguished  men  on  its  list  of  graduates,  and  with 
history  running  back  almost  to  the  settlement  of  the 
little  city  whose  name  it  bears,  ought,  it  seemed  to 
him,  to  care  for  itself.  Nor  did  he  look  favorably  on 
the  fact  that  it  was  in  debt,  had  in  fact  rarely  closed 
a  year  without  adding  to  its  deficit.  But  at  last, 
considering  its  relation  to  Western  Virginia,  and  to 
the  region  south  of  the  Ohio  River,  and  its  own 
local  constituency,  and  recalling  the  fact  that  here 
one  of  the  first  settlements,  if  not  the  very  first  settle- 
ment was  made  in  that  great  tract  of  land  conse- 
crated to  liberty,  education  and  religion,  under  the 
ordinance  of  1787,  and  honoring  the  memory  of  Dr. 
Israel  W.  Andrews,  so  long  at  the  head  of  the  college, 
he  promised  $25,000.00,  if  its  friends  would  pay 
all  its  debts  and  raise  $75,000.00  additional.  That 
gift  was  magical  in  its  influence.  The  debts  were 
paid ;  the  money  for  endowment  secured  and  the  era 
of  the  New  Marietta  began.  Mr.  W.  W.  Mills,  a  grad- 
uate of  the  college,  one  of  its  trustees,  its  treasurer, 

117 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

one  of  its  most  generous  friends,  President  of  the 
First  National  Bank  of  Marietta,  says,  "The  gift 
of  Dr.  Pearsons  was  most  timely,  as  it  enabled  the 
college  to  pay  its  debts  and  to  secure  a  substantial 
addition  to  its  endowment  funds.  I  have  no  doubt 
the  offer  of  Dr.  Pearsons  influenced  many  to  give  to 
the  college  at  that  time,  and  enlarged  its  constitu- 
ency. The  gift  enabled  the  college  to  liquidate  a 
debt  which  had  existed  practically  ever  since  the 
foundation  of  the  institution,  and  to  lay  the  founda- 
tion of  an  endowment  which  has  been  considerably 
increased.  There  is  no  doubt  about  the  great  value 
of  the  effect  of  Dr.  Pearsons'  gift  upon  the  present 
and  future  of  Marietta  College." 

It  has  brought  it  an  increased  number  of  students, 
encouraged  its  friends  and  its  faculty,  and  made  it 
possible  for  it  to  maintain  that  high  rank  in  scholar- 
ship which  the  Secretary  of  the  General  Board  of 
Education  has  given  it.  One  who  visits  the  Marietta 
of  today,  and  looks  upon  the  noble  buildings  which 
surround  and  adorn  its  campus,  or  enters  the  building 
furnished  by  Mr.  Carnegie  in  which  are  stored  many 
of  the  rarest  documents  relating  to  early  American 
History,  can  hardly  realize  through  what  straits  the 
college  has  passed,  or  in  what  financial  distress  it 
found  itself  only  a  few  years  ago.  Out  of  these 
difficulties  the  timely  gift  of  Dr.  Pearsons  extricated 
it,  put  new  life  into  all  its  friends,  and  secured  for  it 
a  future  of  large  and  ever  enlarging  usefulness. 


118 


GIFTS  FOR  INSTITUTIONS 

MONTPELIER    CONFERENCE    SEMINARY,    VERMONT 

When  Dr.  Pearsons  made  up  his  mind  to  help 
Montpelier  Conference  Seminary  to  secure  an  endow- 
ment which  would  perpetuate  its  usefulness  and  en- 
able it  to  do  its  work  without  anxiety  as  to  its  sup- 
port, he  wrote  to  one  of  the  leading  Methodists  of  the 
state  to  ask  if  a  gift  from  him  of  $50,000.00  would 
bring  $150,000.00  from  eastern  friends.  The  Seminary 
was  on  the  point  of  disbanding.  Its  credit  was  gone. 
It  owed  $50,000.00  and  had  only  $18,000.00  produc- 
tive endowment.  Impossible  as  it  seemed  to  meet 
the  conditions,  answer  was  returned  to  Chicago  that 
they  should  be  met.  At  times  many  were  discour- 
aged but  a  few  would  never  give  up.  Again  and 
again  the  time  for  meeting  the  conditions  was 
extended  till  at  length  after  four  years  of  struggle 
it  was  possible  to  inform  the  Doctor  that  he  might 
send  the  money.  No  one  had  done  more  toward 
creating  the  spirit  which  triumphed  in  the  face  of 
great  difficulties  than  the  Doctor  himself.  When 
he  learned  that  the  friends  of  the  Seminary  were 
almost  ready  to  confess  defeat,  and  vote  to  close  the 
Seminary,  he  wrote  letters  to  the  President  of  the 
Seminary,  and  through  him  sent  words  of  greeting 
to  all  its  friends  assuring  them  of  success  if  they 
would  only  pull  all  together  and  keep  on  giving 
until  the  money  was  obtained.  No  one  rejoiced  in 
the  success  of  the  money-raising  campaign  more  than 
the  man  who  had  started  it.  No  wonder  President 

119 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K  PEARSONS 

Bishop  says  "The  Doctor  saved  the  school.     Bless- 
ings on  him." 

There  were  special  reasons  for  Dr.  Pearsons' 
interest  in  this  Seminary.  When  it  was  known  as 
Newbury  Seminary  he  had  prepared  for  college  in  it. 
Here  he  had  a  teacher  whose  influence  upon  him  was 
profound  and  of  whom  he  never  ceased  to  speak 
with  gratitude.  Here  he  was  converted  and  began 
that  Christian  life  in  which  he  rejoiced  during  the 
years  of  his  strenuous  business  career  and  which  fur- 
nished the  principles  by  which  he  was  guided  in  the 
distribution  of  his  millions.  In  that  old  Seminary 
apart  from  the  aid  he  received  from  home,  he  lived 
on  forty  cents  a  week  and  this  money  and  what  was 
needed  for  tuition,  books  and  clothing  he  earned  as 
he  went  along.  It  was  in  Vermont  that  he  was  born 
and  this  name  was  dear  to  him.  How  could  he  be 
content  to  do  nothing  when  a  school  of  which  he  had 
so  many  memories  and  to  which  he  felt  so  much 
indebtedness  was  about  to  die?  There  is  pathos  in 
the  letter  which  accompanied  the  check  sent  to 
President  Bishop.  It  is  full  of  clear  vision  of  the 
future.  To  understand  it  one  must  read  between 
the  lines.  It  is  the  message  of  a  prophet,  and  if  its 
words  seem  inspired,  we  must  remember  whose 
words  they  are,  and  dwell  for  a  moment  on  the 
seventy  and  more  years  which  lay  between  their 
utterance  and  the  student  of  seventeen  years.  They 
were  years  of  ambition,  ambition  which  had  been 
realized ;  years  of  professional  success,  of  business  tri- 
umph, of  ability  in  old  age  to  repay  the  debt  which 

120 


GIFTS  FOR  INSTITUTIONS 

he  owed  the  institution  by  saving  its  life  and  fitting 
it  for  a  larger  usefulness  than  it  had  ever  known. 
Though  often  printed,  that  letter  should  always 
have  a  prominent  place  in  any  account  of  what  Dr. 
Pearsons  has  done.  In  it  we  get  a  hint  of  the  motives 
by  which  he  was  governed,  and  the  vigor  of  his  mind 
at  ninety. 

"Fifty  Thousand  Dollars,  farewell!  You  have 
been  in  my  keeping  for  many  years,  and  you  have  been 
a  faithful  servant.  Your  earnings  have  helped  to 
educate  many  young  men  and  women  who  have 
helped  make  the  world  better.  You  came  to  me  from 
the  grand  old  white  pine  forests  of  Michigan,  and  now 
you  are  going  into  the  hands  of  other  stewards  in  the 
State  of  Vermont.  There  you  are  to  become  a  part 
of  a  perpetual  endowment  fund  of  $150,000  for  Mont- 
pelier  Seminary,  $100,000  of  which  sum  has  been 
given  by  the  people  of  Vermont.  When  you  arrive 
in  Montpelier  you  will  go  into  the  keeping  of  good 
business  men,  and  you  will  be  safe;  as  I  expect  that 
every  dollar  of  this  perpetual  endowment  fund  will 
be  kept  intact  and  actively  doing  good  for  five  hun- 
dred years. 

"Over  one  hundred  years  ago  a  good  man  gave 
$50,000  for  mission  work.  The  interest  on  this  fund 
has  educated  more  than  a  hundred  good  men  for  the 
mission  field,  and  is  still  being  used  for  training  men 
for  the  business  of  brightening  the  world  and  mak- 
ing it  better. 

"In  Denmark  there  is  an  endowment  fund 
founded  over  nine  hundred  years  ago,  and  not  one 
cent  has  been  lost  or  wasted.  I  expect  the  same 
fidelity  in  managing  this  endowment  fund. 

"I  left  Vermont  in  1840.    This  gift,  added  to  other 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

gifts,  makes  $90,000.00  which  I  have  been  privi- 
leged to  contribute  to  the  betterment  of  the  dear  old 
State. 

"Now  Fifty  Thousand  Dollars,  farewell!  Go  into 
the  keeping  of  younger  men,  and  God's  blessing  go 
with  you!  Do  your  duty  and  give  the  poor  boys 
and  girls  of  Vermont  a  fair  chance. 

D.  K.  PEARSONS." 

MlDDLEBURY  COLLEGE,  VERMONT 

The  value  of  Dr.  Pearsons'  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars  to  this  old  college  and  the  immediate  effect 
of  his  offer  cannot  be  described  more  vividly,  or  in 
more  emphatic  langage  than  in  a  letter  from  its 
President,  John  M.  Thomas,  who  is,  as  Dr.  Pearsons 
repeatedly  declared,  a  man  after  his  own  heart. 

"NOVEMBER  14th,  1910. 

"I  was  elected  to  the  Presidency  of  Middlebury 
College  in  October,  1908.  The  college  had  then  200 
students,  and  its  numbers  had  increased  steadily 
for  a  number  of  years,  but  its  endowment  was  alto- 
gether insufficient  and  there  were  not  enough  build- 
ings. Only  two  buildings  had  been  erected  since 
1861,  and  the  endowment  had  remained  practically 
stationary  for  a  number  of  years.  There  was  special 
need  of  a  building  for  girls,  who  were  scattered  in 
homes  all  over  the  village. 

"  Something  needed  to  be  done  to  arouse  the  loyalty 
of  the  Alumni  and  to  stir  interest  throughout  the 
State  of  Vermont.  I  appealed  unsuccessfully  to 
the  General  Education  Board  and  other  benevolent 
organizations  and  individuals.  The  feeling  seemed 
to  be  that  our  college  was  too  small  to  need  help  and 


GIFTS  FOR  INSTITUTIONS 

that  we  had  not  been  making  sufficient  progress. 
Then  I  wrote  Doctor  Pearsons  and  asked  him  for 
$50,000.00  for  a  building  for  girls.  His  reply  was 
'Can  you  raise  $100,000.00  in  Vermont  or  other 
places?  Are  you  a  good  beggar?  It  takes  a  smart 
man  to  raise  money.'  I  answered  that  I  thought  I 
was  a  fairly  good  beggar  and  proposed  to  raise  a  good 
deal  more  than  $100,000  before  I  got  through.  He 
answered  right  away,  'You  need  $100,000.00  to  do 
the  work  right.  I  will  give  you  $25,000.00  when  you 
raise  $75,000.00.  I  have  only  one  style  of  doing 
business.5 

"  That  was  my  first  gleam  of  real  hope  in  my  work 
as  a  college  president.  It  was  a  very  little  thing,  as 
many  of  our  great  colleges  and  universities  count 
benefactions,  but  for  me,  it  meant  a  chance  to  get 
started  on  my  life-work.  With  all  my  heart  I 
thanked  God  for  Doctor  Pearsons  and  my  gratitude 
to  him  will  continue  as  long  as  I  live. 

"I  announced  the  conditional  offer  of  $25,000.00 
on  my  inauguration  day.  While  the  people  were 
still  applauding  one  man  put  his  hand  on  my  shoulder 
with  a  pledge  of  $5,000.00.  Before  night  I  had 
$22,100.00  and  a  $10.00  bill  from  a  school  teacher— 
the  first  actual  cash  to  meet  Doctor  Pearsons'  offer. 
In  just  one  year  to  a  day  from  the  date  of  his  offer, 
I  had  the  $75,000.00  in  hand  and  the  Doctor  was 
writing  his  check. 

"The  campaign  thus  initiated  was  incalculable  to 
our  institution.  It  rallied  our  Alumni  and  won  new 
attention  to  our  College  all  over  this  region  of  country. 
The  class  received  the  following  autumn  was  the  larg- 
est Middlebury  had  ever  known.  In  two  years  the 
attendance  has  increased  from  203  to  275,  and  the 
income  from  tuition  is  $10,000.00  greater.  A  suc- 
cessful summer  school  has  been  inaugurated.  The 

123 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

General  Education  Board,  which  earlier  would  not 
consider  our  appeal,  has  given  us  a  conditional 
grant  of  $50,000.00  towards  a  fund  of  $200,000  and 
all  but  $62,000  of  that  is  now  pledged.  The  Vermont 
Legislature  has  made  us  an  appropriation  of  $6,000.00 
a  year  and  established  a  Department  of  Pedagogy 
for  the  training  of  high-school  teachers.  The  col- 
lege has  really  started  upon  a  new  era  of  expansion 
and  usefulness,  and  no  one  can  question  that  the 
beginning  of  the  movement  was  the  offer  of  Doctor 
Pearsons  and  his  'one  style  of  doing  business.5 

(signed)  JOHN  M.  THOMAS." 

The  real  reason  for  this  gift  as  Dr.  Pearsons  has 
said  again  and  again  is  not  only  his  love  for  Vermont 
and  her  schools,  but  his  wish  that  poor  girls,  espe- 
cially, living  in  the  state  and  unable  to  attend  large 
and  wealthy  colleges,  may  have  a  place  near  their 
homes,  where  at  a  comparatively  small  expenditure  of 
money  they  may  go  and  receive  an  education  as 
good  as  that  furnished  at  Wellesley  or  Smith  or 
Mount  Holyoke. 

MOUNT    HOLYOKE    COLLEGE,    MASSACHUSETTS 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  very  early  in  his 
professional  career  in  Chicopee,  Dr.  Pearsons  had 
been  interested  in  Mount  Holyoke  College.  It 
was  a  seminary  then,  and  very  small,  for  it  was  at 
the  beginning  of  its  great  history.  His  wife,  who  had 
been  trained  under  Miss  Emma  Willard  in  Troy, 
believed  fully  in  the  higher  education  for  women. 
The  members  of  her  family  shared  in  her  belief. 

124 


GIFTS  FOR  INSTITUTIONS 

Her  father's  house  was  one  of  the  places  to  which 
Mary  Lyon  could  always  come  and  be  sure  of  a 
welcome.  Her  whole  family  sympathized  with  Miss 
Lyon  in  her  purposes  and  in  her  plans.  It  is  only 
natural  that  the  husband  of  one  of  the  daughters  in 
such  a  home  should  be  interested  in  Mary  Lyon  also, 
and  that  with  his  love  for  learning  and  his  sympathy 
with  those  who  obtain  it  with  great  difficulty,  he 
should  frequently  visit  it  and  resolve  that  if  ever  he 
were  able  he  would  assist  just  such  schools  as  this 
one  at  South  Hadley.  Years  passed — all  or  nearly 
all  of  the  early  friends  of  the  school  had  died.  The 
school  had  grown  into  a  college.  Still,  although 
there  were  many  teachers  now,  the  spirit  was  the 
spirit  of  Mary  Lyon.  The  prosperity  of  the  institu- 
tion had  increased  its  burdens  till  they  could  no 
longer  be  borne.  Young  women  were  knocking  for 
admittance  at  doors  which  could  not  open  to  them. 
The  graduates  of  the  old  seminary  saw  that  something 
must  be  done.  In  all  parts  of  the  country  meetings 
of  these  graduates  were  held  to  consider  the  situation 
and  to  devise  plans  to  meet  the  crisis.  Dr.  Pearsons 
was  at  once  interested  in  the  movement  and  having 
broken  his  rule  to  make  no  gifts  for  any  institution 
east  of  Chicago,  he  found  it  easy  to  persuade  himself 
that  money  set  aside  for  a  college  which  had  trained 
girls  like  those  who  had  gone  out  into  the  world  from 
Mount  Holyoke,  would  be  well  invested. 

"In  January,  1896,"  reports  Mr.  A.  L.  Williston, 
the  Treasurer  of  the  college,  "Dr.  Pearsons  offered 
to  give  $50,000.00  for  endowment,  if  its  friends  would 

125 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

raise  $150,000.00,  and  as  he  wrote  that  he  was  sure 
we  would  get  it,  he  gave  us  $25,000.00  at  once.  After 
the  great  fire  in  September  Dr.  Pearsons  telegraphed 
from  the  South  where  he  was  then  resting,  while 
the  embers  were  still  burning,  '40,000.00  to  rebuild 
Mt.  Holyoke';  in  July,  1897,  he  sent  the  $40.000.00 
in  cash.  In  March  of  the  same  year  he  gave  $10,- 
000.00  toward  the  sum  which  the  New  York  Alumnae 
were  raising  for  the  Mary  Brigham  Hall.  In  June, 
1898,  the  college  had  raised  $150,000.00  for  endow- 
ment, and  the  Doctor  sent  the  $25,000.00  remaining 
unpaid  on  his  pledge  of  $50,000.00.  So  well  pleased 
was  he  at  what  he  saw  and  heard  on  a  visit  to  the 
college,  that  he  agreed  to  continue  his  offer  of  one 
dollar  for  every  three  dollars  others  would  raise  for 
the  college  during  another  year.  This  cost  him 
$50,000.00  more,  and  when  he  sent  it,  it  was  with  the 
conviction  that  no  money  had  ever  been  better  ex- 
pended than  that  which  he  had  given  for  the  educa- 
tion of  girls  in  Mount  Holyoke.  It  was  a  home  insti- 
tution to  which  he  was  contributing,  an  institution 
founded  by  a  woman  whose  memory  he  revered,  and 
whose  example  he  was  praying  that  many  others 
would  follow." 

Miss  Woolley,  the  President,  says  "We  cannot 
overestimate  the  value  of  Dr.  Pearsons'  gifts  from 
the  point  of  view,  both  of  the  material  assistance 
rendered  at  a  very  critical  time  in  the  history  of  the 
college,  and  also  of  'moral  support'  and  stimulus  to 
other  gifts.  I  think  I  am  right  in  saying  that  with 
the  exception  of  the  'Todd  bequest,'  about  two 

126 


GIFTS  FOR  INSTITUTIONS 

hundred  thousand  dollars,  Doctor  Pearsons  has  given 
more  than  any  other  single  giver,  and  we  are  very 
grateful  to  him.  The  good  work  which  he  started 
by  his  gifts  for  endowment  we  are  now  trying  to  con- 
tinue in  an  attempt  to  add  at  least  half  a  million 
dollars  to  that  endowment  before  our  seventy-fifth 
anniversary  in  nineteen  hundred  and  twelve, — an 
addition  which  is  imperative  for  the  raising  of  our  low 
salaries.  Dr.  Pearsons  is  one  of  the  comparatively 
few  people  who  appreciate  the  necessity  for  endow- 
ments, and  the  academic  world  should  be  grateful 
to  him  for  his  influence  in  that  direction,  as  well  as 
for  many  other  reasons." 


127 


X 

GIFTS  TO  BELOIT  COLLEGE 


X 

GIFTS  TO  BELOIT  COLLEGE 

DR.  PEARSONS  was  drawn  toward  Beloit  by 
many  reasons  in  addition  to  its  proximity  to 
Chicago,  the  promising  character  of  its  field 
and  the  excellence  of  its  work.  He  recalled  the  fact 
that  in  1835  his  interest  in  the  locality  of  the  college 
had  been  aroused  by  seeing  four  wagons  pass  his 
father's  house  in  Vermont  with  people  and  their 
baggage  from  northern  New  Hampshire  on  the  way 
west  to  settle  in  a  place  afterwards  called  Beloit. 
On  his  first  visit  to  the  West  in  1851  with  Mrs. 
Pearsons  he  forded  the  Rock  River  and  stopped  at 
the  place  of  which  he  had  first  heard,  when  a  boy  of 
fifteen.  As  previously  stated,  on  starting  for  Janes- 
ville  he  asked  a  man  who  entered  the  stage  at  Beloit 
what  that  building  was  which  was  going  up  on  the  hill 
and  received  as  an  answer,  "Oh,  that  is  a  college 
which  some  eastern  cranks  are  trying  to  build." 
"During  the  ride  to  Janesville,"  says  the  Doctor,  "he 
and  I  discussed  the  value  of  colleges,  he  attacking 
them,  I  defending  them,  till  at  parting  I  told  him 
I  was  going  to  help  such  colleges  as  that  when  I 
had  become  rich."  Dr.  Pearsons  did  not  forget  his 

131 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

promise  although  nearly  forty  years  had  passed 
before  he  was  in  a  condition  to  redeem  it. 

One  morning  in  May,  1889,  a  letter  was  put  into 
the  hands  of  President  Eaton,  from  a  man  he  had 
never  met,  of  whom  he  knew  nothing.  It  contained 
these  words:  "President  Eaton.  If  I  give  Beloit 
$100,000.00,  can  you  raise  $100,000.00  by  July  1? 
I  mean  business. 

Truly, 

D.  K.  PEARSONS." 

Could  the  challenge  be  met?  At  any  rate  the  at- 
tempt must  be  made.  The  result  was  that  the  $100,- 
000.00  was  obtained  in  the  short  space  of  seven  weeks 
and  the  college  put  into  possession  of  what  then 
seemed  to  be  the  large  sum  of  $200,000.00.  That 
was  the  beginning  of  a  series  of  gifts  which  have 
brought  the  college  into  the  rank  of  the  strong  col- 
leges of  the  country.  The  conditions  of  an  offer  in 
1895  of  $50,000.00  if  three  times  that  amount  were 
raised  were  not  met  till  1898.  In  1901  $200,000.00 
were  offered  the  college  if  $150,000  were  added  to  it. 
This  condition  was  met.  In  1908  $25,000.00  more 
were  given  toward  the  $200,000  the  Trustees  were 
trying  to  add  to  the  college  endowment.  Mean- 
while the  Doctor  had  given  large  sums  for  much- 
needed  buildings.  For  the  erection  of  Chapin  Hall 
$25,000  were  provided  in  1891.  The  next  year  $60,- 
000.00  went  into  the  Pearsons  Science  Hall  and  in 
1897  $30,000  were  expended  for  the  building  of 
Emerson  Hall,  the  home  of  the  college  girls.  Dr. 

132 


GIFTS  TO  BELOIT  COLLEGE 

Pearsons'  gifts  to  Beloit  thus  amount  to  more  than 
a  half  million  dollars,  to  say  nothing  of  the  constit- 
uency he  has  helped  to  create  for  the  college  and  the 
stimulus  he  has  imparted  to  its  faculty  and  its  friends. 

The  value  of  these  gifts  and  the  effect  they  have 
had  on  the  fortunes  of  the  college  no  one  can  set 
forth  so  well  as  Dr.  E.  D.  Eaton,  the  president  of 
the  college  when  the  gifts  in  money  were  made  and 
the  buildings  erected.  Slightly  modified  and  con- 
densed, his  words  are  as  follows: 

"In  1889,  Beloit  College,  with  a  splendid  record 
of  over  forty  years  of  devotion  to  high  ideals,  was 
struggling  to  obtain  resources  for  its  development 
along  the  lines  of  the  new  education.  Its  equip- 
ment was  meager,  its  faculty  few  in  number.  On 
the  tenth  of  May  in  that  year  the  President  received 
a  letter  which  read  as  follows:  'President  Eaton: 
If  I  give  Beloit  College  $100,000.00  can  you  raise 
$100,000.00  more  by  July  1?  I  mean  business. 
Truly,  D.  K.  Pearsons.'  The  effect  was  electric. 
Citizens  of  Beloit,  Trustees  and  Faculty,  Alumni  and 
friends  of  the  College  bent  to  the  task,  and  in  less 
than  seven  weeks  the  money  was  obtained  and  the 
new  Beloit  was  born.  Commencement  that  year 
was  a  time  of  great  rejoicing.  Dr.  Pearsons  then 
made  his  first  visit  to  Beloit  College.  As  he  walked 
over  the  campus,  he  exclaimed  'This  is  New  England.' 
He  was  now  redeeming  the  promise  he  had  made  so 
long  ago,  and  was  helping  the  college  on  the  hill. 
On  the  platform  on  Commencement  Day,  he  made 
the  first  of  a  series  of  addresses,  keen,  witty,  elo- 

133 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

quent,  with  thought  and  feeling,  which  have  become 
historic  in  the  annals  of  Beloit.  That  autumn  the 
foundation  of  a  new  building  was  laid,  the  first  of 
ten  buildings  which  these  years  of  swift  development 
have  brought  the  college." 

At  that  time  the  pressure  of  two  urgent  problems 
had  begun  to  be  increasingly  felt:  One,  the 
want  of  an  adequate  building  and  equipment  for 
teaching  physical  sciences;  the  other  the  demand 
for  a  commodious  dormitory.  Under  the  guidance 
of  Professors  Chamberlain  and  Saulsbury,  of  the 
University  of  Chicago,  then  members  of  the 
faculty  of  Beloit,  foundations  had  been  laid 
for  exceptionally  good  work  in  science  in  the 
college,  but  accommodations  and  apparatus  for 
teaching  were  woefully  lacking.  Growth  in  the 
number  of  students  had  increased  the  rent  for  rooms 
in  the  village,  and  thus  laid  a  burden  on  the  shoulders 
of  poor  students  which  they  were  finding  hard  to 
bear.  Dr.  Pearsons  was  deeply  interested  in  the 
situation.  He  expressed  his  willingness  to  give 
$30,000  for  a  Science  Building,  if  others  would  give 
as  much,  Soon  afterwards  he  had  decided  to  give 
$25,000.00  for  the  building  of  a  dormitory,  the  Pres- 
ident alone  knowing  from  whom  the  gift  came.  It 
pleased  the  Doctor  to  pay  for  the  building  in  cash, 
rather  than  by  check,  so  that  the  President  had  the 
experience  of  going  from  Chicago  to  Beloit  with  his 
pockets  full  of  bills  for  the  payment  of  the  contractor. 
In  the  meantime  the  Doctor  told  the  President  that 
he  decided  to  withdraw  his  offer  of  $30,000.00  for  a 

134 


GIFTS  TO  BELOIT  COLLEGE 

Science  Building  and  put  a  part  of  that  money  into 
a  dormitory  instead.  The  President  was  greatly 
disturbed,  but  said  nothing.  Commencement  night 
1892,  Dr.  Pearsons  made  it  known,  from  the  plat- 
form that  he  was  the  giver  of  the  dormitory,  and 
named  it  Chapin  Hall,  in  honor  of  the  revered  first 
President  of  the  College.  During  the  applause  that 
followed  he  took  from  his  pocket  a  letter,  turned  to 
President  Eaton  and  said,  "You  have  shown  that 
you  can  keep  a  secret  but  I  would  have  you  know  that 
I  can  keep  one,  also.  I  have  one  of  my  own  of  which 
you  know  nothing.  I  have  put  it  into  a  letter  which,*' 
he  roguishly  added,  "I  have  brought  with  me  from 
Chicago  to  save  a  postage  stamp.  Here  it  is  and 
you  must  read  it  to  the  audience."  The  astonished 
and  almost  overpowered  President  read  aloud  as 
follows:  "I  will  give  Beloit  $60,000.00  for  a  Science 
Hall,  if  the  Trustees  will  raise  $120,000  to  equip  and 
endow  it."  Little  wonder  that  at  the  close  of  the 
exercises  the  college  boys  laid  hold  of  Dr.  Pearsons 
and  in  spite  of  his  protests  put  him  into  a  carriage 
and  drew  him  to  the  place  where  the  Commencement 
dinner  was  to  be  served.  Toward  meeting  the  con- 
ditions imposed  at  this  time  Mr.  William  E.  Hale 
of  Chicago,  one  of  the  Trustees  gave  $60,000.00  and 
the  other  $60,000.00  was  raised  among  other  friends 
of  the  college.  During  the  autumn  of  that  year 
the  building  took  shape  on  the  campus,  and  since 
has  been  a  prominent  and  determining  factor  in  the 
life  of  the  college. 

When,  in   1895,  it  was  determined  that  young 
135 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

ladies  should  share  in  the  advantages  of  the  college, 
Dr.  Pearsons  at  Commencement  promised  $50,000 
if  $150,000.00  more  were  raised.  At  the  semi-centen- 
nial celebration  of  the  opening  of  the  college  in  June, 
1897,  he  declared  his  purpose  to  put  $30,000.00  into 
a  building  for  young  women,  which  he  afterwards 
named  Emerson  Hall,  in  honor  of  one  of  Beloit's 
oldest  and  most  honored  professors.  The  speech 
in  which  that  gift  was  announced  is  so  character- 
istic of  other  addresses  made  at  Beloit  and  at  some 
other  colleges,  that  it  is  here  given  entire. 

"I  had  a  college  president  come  to  my  office  a  few 
days  ago.  He  sat  down  by  me,  looked  me  in  the 
eye.  I  did  not  know  but  what  he  was  going  to  take 
hold  of  me  by  the  collar, — and  he  said,  'Why  do  you 
give  to  Beloit  so  much?  Why  don't  you  give  to  the 
rest  of  us?'  I  did  not  tell  him  that  it  was  none  of 
his  business.  No,  because  I  treat  all  college  presi- 
dents and  college  professors  with  the  greatest  consid- 
eration. Are  there  any  men  in  the  world  who  can 
compare  with  the  self-sacrificing  college  presidents 
and  professors?  They  work  for  small  pay,  they 
work  for  God  and  humanity.  Therefore  under  all 
circumstances  I  treat  them  with  the  utmost  kindness. 
And  I  receive  them  from  every  portion  of  the  coun- 
try. I  have  an  interview  with  college  presidents 
nearly  every  day. 

"Now  I  am  going  to  answer  the  question  about 
Beloit.  That  is  a  fair  question.  It  is  my  duty  to 
answer  it.  The  first  college  I  helped  .  .  .  and 
I  have  helped  sixteen,  was  Beloit  College.  I  did 
not  make  any  mistake.  No,  I  think  it  shows  that 
I  am  a  pretty  shrewd  man.  I  will  tell  you  why. 

136 


GIFTS  TO  BELOIT  COLLEGE 

Beloit  College  from  top  to  bottom  is  thoroughly 
honest.  You  never  have  deceived  me,  you  never 
have  tried  to  terrify  me  in  any  shape  or  manner.  I 
wish  I  could  say  the  same  of  all  colleges.  You  have 
been  frank  and  honest.  Everything  you  have  agreed 
to  do,  you  have  done. 

"  I  could  say  a  great  deal  more,  but  I  am  coming 
to  the  point  now  which  I  am  greatly  interested  in. 
A  good  gentleman  and  lady,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stowell, 
have  given  this  college  a  beautiful  block  and  build- 
ing costing.  $30,000.00,  which  they  have  paid  for 
outright.  There  it  stands.  What  are  the  young 
ladies  that  come  to  Beloit  to  have  in  the  future? 
Those  young  ladies  who  come  to  Beloit  in  the  future 
ought  to  have  a  beautiful  building,  a  charming  build- 
ing, where  they  can  have  a  real  nice  family  home  and 
be  under  the  direction  of  a  grand  and  good  matron. 
And  I  propose  to  build  that  building.  That  build- 
ing will  cost  $30,000.00.  It  will  be  taller  than  Cha- 
pin  Hall,  a  little  longer  and  a  little  wider.  It  will  be 
a  beauty.  Now  I  say  to  you  gentlemen  of  the 
trustees  board,  go  on  and  build  your  building.  As 
fast  as  you  build  call  for  your  money  and  you  will 
get  it.  When  you  get  it  built,  you  will  get  every 
dollar  in  money,  not  a  check,  but  right  out  in  money. 
Build  it  economically.  I  intend  that  that  $30,000.00 
shall  build  a  superb  building,  and  shall  put  in  heat- 
ing apparatus  and  a  radiator  in  every  room.  I  will 
tell  you  why.  You  can  build  thirty  per  cent  cheaper 
now  than  you  did  when  you  built  Chapin  Hall.  You 
know  that,  every  one  of  you.  There  are  men  idle 
who  want  work.  Now  is  the  time  to  pitch  in  and 
build. 

"I  am  not  going  to  dictate  to  the  Trustees  about 
that  building.  I  have  got  business  enough  of  my 
own.  I  do  not  run  a  risk  though  in  telling  these 

137 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

gentlemen  to  go  on.  I  confine  them  with  certain 
limits.  That  is  business.  But  if  you  look  back 
eight  years  and  see  what  these  gentlemen  have  done 
in  building  you  will  see  that  they  can  be  depended 
upon  to  do  anything  in  that  line.  Look  at  Scoville 
Hall,  the  Chapel,  Science  Hall,  the  finest  in  the 
world.  There  is  one  thing  more  I  would  have. 
That  beautiful  building  has  got  to  be  furnished.  Do 
not  any  of  you  gentlemen  rise  up  and  say,  I  will 
furnish  it.  You  are  not  going  to  have  anything  to 
do  with  it.  The  ladies  of  the  North  West  will  fur- 
nish that  building.  You  and  I,  ladies,  are  working 
together  now.  The  building  is  going  to  be  furnished, 
and  it  will  cost  about  $4,000.00.  When  you  go  back 
to  your  homes  in  Janesville  and  all  around,  ladies, 
at  the  very  next  meeting  of  your  ladies'  association 
just  tell  them  that  you  are  going  to  furnish  a  room 
in  what, — I  will  tell  you  what  it  is, — in  Emerson 
Hall.  It  is  not  often  you  name  a  building  before  it 
is  built,  but  Dr.  Emerson,  it  is  your  hall. 

"Now  I  want  to  tell  you  one  thing.  You  know  I 
feel  perfectly  at  home  in  this  audience.  I  have  been 
here  four  times.  I  have  talked  to  you  in  a  form  that 
I  would  not  talk  in  under  ordinary  circumstances. 
I  have  never  given  to  a  liberal  institution,  as  they 
term  it, — I  never  will.  Never.  I  do  not  believe  in 
giving  to  an  institution  that  uses  the  prayer-room  as 
a  dancing-hall,  or  Shakespeare  for  the  Bible. 

"Now  I  am  not  coming  here  again  until  you  get 
your  endowment  raised.  Then  I  will  come  up. 
You  might  as  well  go  about  raising  that  endowment 
now  for  your  prosperity  adds  to  your  expense.  When 
you  write  that  you  have  got  it  all,  I  will  come  up 
and  bring  the  $50,000.00  in  clean  cash.  I  will  not 
give  you  a  check,  but  the  money  itself.  When  you 
write  me  that  the  endowment  is  raised,  I  will  come, 

138 


GIFTS  TO  BELOIT  COLLEGE 

and  not  before.  I  have  very  good  reasons  why  I 
have  given  to  Beloit.  I  will  help  you  as  much  in 
the  future  as  I  have  in  the  past." 

One  of  the  exercises  at  the  commencement  in  1898 
was  the  dedication  of  Emerson  Hall.  Mr.  Hale  of  Chi- 
cago represented  Dr.  Pearsons,  who  could  not  leave 
Chicago,  and  Professor  Emerson  spoke  for  the  college 
and  the  young  women  for  whom  it  had  been  erected. 
At  that  time  Dr.  Pearsons  gave  the  college  a  check  for 
$51,000.00,  the  extra  thousand  dollars  being  for 
Mrs.  Pearsons,  to  help  meet  the  conditions  imposed 
by  her  husband  when  his  pledge  was  made. 

When  the  health  of  the  President  was  seriously 
impaired  in  1901,  Dr.  Pearsons  came  forward  with 
an  offer  of  $200,000.00  if  the  Trustees  would  raise 
$150,000  and  the  President  would  remain  with  the 
college  and  return  to  his  work,  after  taking  suitable 
rest.  These  conditions  were  speedily  met,  and  Be- 
loit College  became  as  strong  a  college  financially  as 
it  long  had  been  in  its  faculty  and  in  the  character 
of  its  work. 

Four  years  later  the  President  found  a  change  of 
occupation  so  absolutely  necessary  that  he  reluc- 
tantly accepted  a  call  to  the  pastorate  of  a  New  Eng- 
land church  whence,  two  years  later  he  was  persuaded 
to  return  to  Beloit.  But  before  consenting  to  fill 
his  old  position  he  took  the  lead  in  a  campaign  which 
increased  the  endowment  of  the  college  $200,000.00, 
toward  which  Dr.  Pearsons  contributed  $25,000.00. 
"For  twenty  years  now,"  says  President  Eaton,  "Dr. 

139 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

Pearsons  has  been  the  dynamic  of  Beloit's  new  life; 
at  every  critical  point  in  the  history  of  the  college  his 
moulding  and  energizing  spirit  has  been  embodied  in 
the  development  which  has  characterized  the  epoch." 
Generous  and  valuable  as  Dr.  Pearsons'  gifts  to 
the  college  have  been,  it  ought  not  to  be  forgotten  that 
the  conditions  upon  which  they  were  offered  could 
never  have  been  met,  save  for  the  unflagging  inter- 
est in  the  college  on  the  part  of  its  trustees,  and  the 
liberal  way  in  which  they  themselves  contributed. 
They  were  leaders  in  the  money-seeking  campaigns. 
Nor  did  they  grow  weary  or  discouraged  when  many 
said,  "The  conditions  cannot  be  met."  They  said, 
"We  must  meet  them,  and  we  will."  And  they  did. 
In  the  earlier  campaigns,  or  till  he  became  President 
of  Wooster  University,  Ohio,  they  had  the  invaluable 
assistance  of  Rev.  Lewis  E.  Holden,  then  financial 
agent  of  the  college.  Mr.  Holden  had  a  genius  for 
raising  money.  He  could  obtain  it  where  every  one 
else  would  fail.  And  he  obtained  it  because  he  loved 
the  college  from  which  he  had  graduated,  in  which 
he  was  a  professor  and  in  whose  present  and  future 
work  he  believed  with  all  his  heart.  His  enthusiasm 
never  failed  nor  did  he  ever  shrink  from  any  task, 
however  distasteful,  provided  it  promised  something 
for  his  Alma  Mater.  To  him  should  be  accorded 
as  it  is  by  those  who  know  what  he  accomplished, 
the  credit  for  no  small  share  in  securing  the  victory 
in  the  earlier  campaigns  for  the  money  called  for  to 
meet  the  conditions  upon  which  the  offers  of  Dr. 
Pearsons  were  made. 

140 


GIFTS  TO  BELOIT  COLLEGE 

Dr.  Pearsons  has  admired  the  college  for  its  Chris- 
tian character  and  for  the  devotion  to  its  interests 
on  the  part  of  its  trustees,  its  graduates,  and  more 
than  all,  of  its  faculty.  He  has  never  tired  of  speak- 
ing of  the  noble  work  of  President  Chapin,  Professors 
Emerson,  Blaisdell  and  Porter,  who  literally  gave 
their  lives  for  the  college,  and  for  the  larger  share 
of  their  pay  were  content  to  look  upon  the  character 
of  their  students  and  the  place  they  filled  in  the 
world.  Such  an  institution  he  felt  ought  to  live, 
be  fully  equipped  for  all  the  work  demanded  of  it, 
and  its  influence  perpetuated  through  an  endowment 
he  could  help  it  secure. 


141 


XI 

GIFTS  TO  OTHER  WESTERN  COLLEGES  THAN 
BELOIT 


XI 

GIFTS  TO  OTHER  WESTERN  COLLEGES  THAN 
BELOIT 

PARK  College,  Parkville,  Missouri,  is  one  of 
the  colleges  in  which  Dr.  Pearsons  has 
been  especially  interested.  It  is  the  out- 
growth of  the  devotion  of  a  single  family,  father  and 
sons,  the  McAfees.  Thoroughly  Christian  in  its 
spirit,  Presbyterian  in  its  denominational  prefer- 
ence, yet  absolutely  tolerant,  furnishing  opportun- 
ities for  self-support  so  abundant  that  no  one  who 
really  desires  an  education  need  hesitate  to  seek 
it,  it  could  not  fail  to  win  the  respect  and  sympathy 
of  a  man  like  Dr.  Pearsons,  who  has  always  sought 
to  invest  his  money  where  it  would  return  the  larg- 
est dividends. 

It  has  a  large  plant  and  is  entirely  out  of  debt. 
Its  endowment  is  small,  for  an  institution  of  its  size, 
though  it  is  steadily  increasing.  Its  President,  Dr. 
Lowell  M.  McAfee,  says,  "I  can  assure  you  most 
unqualifiedly  that  few  gifts  have  come  to  Park  at 
a  time  when  they  were  more  timely  and  more  help- 
ful than  that  of  Dr.  Pearsons.  For  some  years  we 
had  made  no  appreciable  advance  in  our  endowment. 
10  145 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

We  needed  just  the  impetus  that  his  gift  of  $25,000.00 
afforded.  I  cannot  speak  too  highly  of  our  apprecia- 
tion of  his  kindness  and  helpfulness  in  placing  his 
seal  of  approval  on  the  work  of  the  institution.'* 

There  are  thirty  or  more  buildings  on  the  campus, 
unpretentious  all  of  them,  but  suited  to  the  purpose 
for  which  they  were  erected.  Parkville  is  not  far 
from  Kansas  City  and  is  in  the  center  of  a  region 
where  the  work  the  college  is  trying  to  do,  and  has 
been  successful  in  doing,  is  greatly  needed. 

Dr.  Pearsons  has  made  no  large  gifts  to  any  of  the 
Iowa  Colleges.  He  has  felt  that  a  state  with  the 
wealth  of  Iowa,  and  the  appreciation  the  people  in 
general  have  of  the  value  of  an  education,  might 
wisely  be  left  to  provide  for  its  own  institutions. 

To  Coe  College,  a  small  college  at  Cedar  Rapids, 
he  has,  however,  given  a  thousand  dollars,  and  at  a 
time  when  this  sum  was  very  much  needed. 

Tabor  College  also  received  about  one  thousand 
dollars  from  him,  without  any  conditions  attached 
to  it.  The  gift  was  of  very  great  value,  as  without 
it,  it  would  have  been  well-nigh  impossible  to  com- 
plete a  building  greatly  needed  in  the  college  work. 
The  sympathy  expressed  in  the  gift,  and  the  approval 
thus  given  the  college  were  worth  more  than  the 
money,  indispensable  as  that  seemed  to  be.  Tabor, 
as  is  well  known,  occupies  a  field  entirely  its  own  and 
is  furnishing  opportunities  for  higher  education  to 
a  class  of  students  very  eager  to  accept  them. 

Hastings  College,  Nebraska,  has  received  $10,000 
from  Dr.  Pearsons.  Though  a  small  college,  its 

146 


GIFTS  TO  OTHER  WESTERN  COLLEGES 

history  has  been  creditable,  and  its  future  is  prom- 
ising. 

Doane  College  in  southern  Nebraska,  so  called 
after  its  most  generous  benefactor,  has  done  for 
nearly  a  generation,  fine  work  with  a  very  scanty 
equipment.  Its  graduates  have  distinguished  them- 
selves in  almost  every  rank  of  life.  As  a  child  of 
the  Congregational  churches  of  the  state,  it  has  again 
and  again  received  their  willing  aid  in  adding  to  its 
endowment.  This  year,  1911,  it  has  received  from 
them,  notwithstanding  recent  gifts  which  taxed  their 
capacity  to  the  utmost,  seventy-five  thousand  dol- 
lars, for  the  twenty-five  promised  and  paid  over  by 
Dr.  Pearsons.  The  college  has  a  campus  of  great 
beauty,  one  which  the  oldest  and  richest  university 
in  the  country  might  well  covet.  President  Perry 
has  given  his  life  to  the  college,  and  with  the  assist- 
ance of  able  professors,  has  brought  it  into  the  first 
rank  of  the  smaller  colleges. 

The  fact  that  Washburn  College,  situated  as  it  is 
at  the  capital  of  the  State,  has  been  able  to  attract 
the  attention  of  wealthy  men  in  the  east,  and  has 
received  large  gifts  from  them,  has  led  Dr.  Pearsons 
to  feel  that  it  would  be  wiser  for  him  to  give  to  col- 
leges with  fewer  resources  open  to  them  than  the 
college  at  Topeka.  He  has,  however,  taken  a  deep 
interest  in  Washburn,  has  watched  its  growth  care- 
fully, and  years  ago  presented  it  with  a  thousand 
dollars.  To  this  gift  he  makes  no  reference  when 
speaking  of  the  institutions  he  has  aided. 

Fairmount  College,  Wichita,  in  Southern  Kansas, 
147 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

is  one  of  the  rapidly  growing  institutions  of  that 
great  state.  The  city  in  which  it  is  located  has  all 
the  push  and  enterprise  of  the  north  and  west,  but 
in  social  life  is  characterized  by  much  of  the  charm 
and  refinement  of  the  south.  Many  of  the  leading 
citizens  of  Wichita,  and  not  a  few  of  the  best  friends 
of  the  college  are  southern  born.  The  majority  of 
the  students  at  Fairmount  are  from  Kansas,  though 
a  few  are  from  states  further  south.  To  the  appeals 
of  Fairmount  for  aid,  Dr.  Pearsons  has  responded 
with  gifts  aggregating  $40,000.00.  These  gifts  have 
drawn  the  attention  of  many  friends  of  learning  to 
this  college,  and  to  such  a  degree  that  its  enthusiastic 
and  very  able  President,  Rev.  Henry  E.  Thayer, 
is  now  inaugurating  a  campaign  for  a  very  consid- 
erable increase  in  the  endowment  of  the  college,  the 
erection  of  new  buildings  and  an  increase  in  the 
faculty.  Fairmount  has  demonstrated  its  right  to 
live,  and  its  value  to  the  large  constituency  which 
geographically  belongs  to  it.  That  the  present 
campaign  for  an  increase  of  funds  will  be  entirely 
successful,  those  who  are  acquainted  with  President 
Thayer  and  his  Board  of  Trustees  do  not  for  a  mo- 
ment doubt. 

Colorado  College  at  Colorado  Springs,  is  one  of 
the  institutions  which  has  received  substantial  aid 
from  the  Doctor's  purse.  Years  ago  when  on  a  visit 
to  the  Springs  during  a  summer  vacation,  he  declared 
his  purpose  to  a  friend  to  assist  the  college  at  some 
future  time.  The  friend  was  dubious.  He  had 
heard  wealthy  men  talk  before.  He  made  an  entry 

148 


GIFTS  TO  OTHER  WESTERN  COLLEGES 

in  his  note-book  that  Dr.  Pearsons  of  Chicago  has 
said  that  sometime  he  was  going  to  aid  the  little 
struggling  college  at  Colorado  Springs,  and  added 
that  he  was  going  to  see  how  the  promise  was  kept. 
No  man  was  more  surprised  than  he,  when  he 
learned  that  the  Doctor  had  come  to  the  rescue  of 
the  college,  had  encouraged  its  President  to  under- 
take a  money-raising  campaign,  in  which  he  had 
little  hope  of  success,  but  which,  pushed  with  un- 
wearied energy  and  carefully  planned,  brought  the 
college  its  first  large  endowment,  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars  from  the  man  who  long  before  had  promised 
to  aid  the  college.  That  college  is  now  the  leading 
institution  in  the  state,  has  more  students  than  it 
can  accommodate,  and  is  suffering  from  a  demand 
for  special  instruction  in  departments  not  yet  estab- 
lished. In  appreciation  of  what  Dr.  Pearsons  has 
done  for  Colorado  and  other  colleges,  President 
Slocum  writes: 

"It  is  not  easy  to  place  a  just  estimate  upon  the 
value  of  the  beneficence  of  Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons. 
Without  doubt  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie  was  right 
when  he  said  that  there  never  had  been  in  the  his- 
tory of  America  a  case  of  giving  which  had  accom- 
plished as  much  of  value  to  the  whole  country  as 
the  gifts  of  Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons  to  the  colleges  of  the 
West.  It  is  of  very  distinct  advantage  that  these 
gifts  are  the  result  of  painstaking  and  business-like 
investigations.  No  set  of  institutions  in  the  coun- 
try has  done  more  for  moral,  as  well  as  intellectual 
leadership,  than  have  these  colleges,  which  are  dis- 
tinctly religious  in  their  influence.  It  is  the  recog- 

149 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

nition  of  this  fact,  which  has  placed  such  high  value 
upon  the  discriminating  benevolence  of  Dr.  Pear- 
sons. He  has  recognized  that  there  are  certain 
strategic  points  in  the  West,  where  colleges  should 
be  established  and  developed,  and  with  the  far-sight- 
edness of  a  man  well  acquainted  with  this  section  of 
the  country,  he  had  poured  his  millions  into  these 
institutions  and  made  it  possible  in  many  cases  for 
them  to  go  on  with  their  beneficent  work. 

"  It  is  remarkable  that  he  has  been  able  to  give  such 
a  large  amount  of  time  to  a  study  of  these  colleges, 
visiting  them,  making  careful  examination  of  their 
curriculums,  and  especially  of  their  business  methods, 
and  watching  their  growth  with  an  interest  that  has 
been  keen  as  well  as  sympathetic. 

"The  result  has  been  that  not  only  have  his  dona- 
tions been  wisely  placed,  but  he  has  set  an  example 
to  others  which  has  resulted  in  doubling  or  even 
trebling  the  value  of  his  own  gifts. 

"Aside,  however,  from  the  great  financial  worth  of 
his  munificence,  the  greatest  value  of  his  gifts  has 
been,  that  by  means  of  them  he  has  set  on  their  way 
moral  and  religious  influences,  which  are  the  hope 
of  America.  No  one  can  study  keenly  such  tenden- 
cies throughout  the  West,  without  realizing  how 
these  influences  are  largely  centered  in  the  type  of 
college  which  he  is  supporting;  colleges  which  are 
constantly  sending  into  the  world  a  stream  of  young 
men  and  women  who  are  taking  places  of  leadership 
in  all  that  makes  for  the  highest  good  of  the  coun- 
try. It  is  this  which  has  made  Dr.  Pearsons'  gen- 
erosity of  such  national  importance.  As  the  years 
go  on,  it  will  be  recognized  more  and  more  that  it 
is  this  which  constitutes  the  inestimable  value  of  the 
gifts  of  this  great  and  wise  philanthropist,  whose 
memory  will  be  cherished  not  only  by  the  institu- 

150 


GIFTS  TO  OTHER  WESTERN  COLLEGES 

tions  which  he  has  helped,  but  by  the  thousands  of 
earnest,  high-minded,  self-reliant  young  people  who 
received  college  training  because  of  his  generosity 
and  who  are  rendering  service  throughout  the  world, 
which  is  one  of  the  highest  value." 

To  the  College  of  Idaho,  at  Caldwell,  Dr.  Pearsons 
gave  $25,000.00  in  1909.  This  with  $75,000.00 
obtained  from  other  sources  provided  an  endowment 
of  $100,000.00,  which  has  been  increased  through 
the  stimulus  created  by  the  interest  taken  in  the  col- 
lege by  Dr.  Pearsons,  to  $160,000.00.  President  Boon 
says,  "The  College  can  never  forget  that  Dr.  Pear- 
sons led  the  way  to  financial  success,  or  that  its  Vice 
President,  Miss  Julia  V.  Finney,  one  of  its  faithful 
teachers,  was  the  agent  through  whom  his  interest 
in  the  college  was  aroused."  The  field  which  the 
college  occupies  is  full  of  promise  and  as  it  has  the 
moral  and  financial  support  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  the  whole  country,  it  can  hardly  fail 
to  become  a  large  and  important  institution  of 
learning. 

In  the  College  of  Montana  at  Deer  Lodge,  Dr. 
Pearsons  was  interested  when  he  first  heard  that  its 
establishment  was  proposed.  His  promise  of  $25,- 
000.00,  made  as  soon  as  there  was  any  prospect  that- 
additional  funds  could  be  secured,  "was,"  writes 
the  President,  "undoubtedly  the  means  of  securing 
our  endowment.  It  made  possible  the  work  since 
done  and  the  high  degree  of  efficiency  and  success 
since  reached."  With  a  large  body  of  students  in 
attendance,  the  state  rapidly  increasing  in  popula- 

151 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

tion,  an  able  faculty  and  the  Presbyterian  Church 
interested  in  it,  its  future  is  assured. 

Carleton  College,  Northfield,  Minnesota,  has 
received  $50,000.00  from  Dr.  Pearsons.  It  was  prom- 
ised to  Dr.  J.  W.  Strong,  then  President  of  the  college, 
on  condition  that  double  the  sum  be  raised  in  addi- 
tion, for  endowment.  He  promised  also  to  pay  one 
half  of  the  amount  whenever  fifty  thousand  dollars 
were  secured.  May  19,  1900,  the  college  received 
$25,000.00  and  January  8,  1901,  $25,000.00.  The 
gift  was  of  great  service  to  the  college  in  itself  and  in 
the  influence  it  had  in  creating  confidence  in  its 
character  and  worth. 

Lawrence  University,  under  Methodist  control, 
and  located  at  Appleton,  Wisconsin,  one  of  the 
institutions  in  which  Dr.  Pearsons  lectured  when  he 
represented  Dr.  Calvin  Cutter  in  the  West  and  in 
the  South,  in  the  late  fifties,  received  from  him  five 
thousand  dollars,  toward  the  erection  of  Science 
Hall.  President  Plantz  says:  "This  gift  was  of 
the  greatest  importance  to  us,  since  it  gave  a  start 
to  a  needed  enterprise  and  helped  stimulate  General 
Isaac  Stephenson  to  make  a  large  gift  for  the  same 
cause.  I  doubt  if  we  would  have  been  able  to  erect 
the  Science  Hall  at  the  time  we  did  if  Dr.  Pearsons' 
gift  had  not  given  us  a  valuable  start.  Its  erection 
marks  the  beginning  of  the  recent  prosperity  of  our 
college  both  in  attendance  and  in  the  development 
of  our  resources." 

Toward  the  erection  of  Ingram  Hall,  which  is  a 
Science  Hall,  for  Ripon  College,  Ripon,  Wisconsin, 

152 


GIFTS  TO  OTHER  WESTERN  COLLEGES 

Dr.  Pearsons  gave  five  thousand  dollars.  The 
money  came  at  a  critical  time  and  made  it  possible 
to  secure  a  building  which  was  an  absolute  necessity, 
and  has  served  its  purpose  with  increasing  efficiency. 
President  Merrill,  then  at  the  head  of  the  college, 
wrote  the  Doctor  that  he  believed  him  to  be  the 
wisest  giver  he  had  ever  known.  His  gifts  were  not 
always  made  on  conditions  hard  to  meet.  Nor  did 
he  always  care  to  have  it  known  that  money  came 
from  him  for  any  special  object.  He  often  concealed 
his  gifts  under  the  name  of  another.  He  was  thus 
true  to  his  purpose  of  investing  his  money  where  he 
was  persuaded  it  would  do  the  most  good. 

For  Northland  College,  Ashland,  Wisconsin,  Dr. 
Pearsons  has  invested  $10,000.00  in  an  endowment 
which  as  yet  is  very  small.  This  college  is  the  child 
of  missions  and  as  a  frontier  college,  with  a  field  from 
two  to  five  hundred  miles  in  extent  in  different  direc- 
tions, has  an  opportunity  rarely  equalled  for  Chris- 
tian and  educational  influence.  "It  is  the  leading 
agency,"  says  Rev.  E.  P.  Wheeler,  "to  mould  and 
unify  and  raise  up  leaders  for  the  virile  races  of 
Northern  Europe,  beginning  the  struggle  among  the 
stump  lands  of  the  Lake  Superior  region."  The 
college  is  in  its  infancy,  but  the  children  of  heroic 
German  and  Scandinavian  settlers,  and  of  "the 
equally  heroic  but  defeated  peasantry  of  Finland, 
Poland  and  Russia"  are  showing  themselves  eager 
to  embrace  the  opportunities  it  offers  them  for  an 
education. 

To  Huron  College,  Huron,  South  Dakota,  $15,000 
153 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

have  been  given.  This  gift  was  the  beginning  of  a 
permanent  endowment.  As  to  its  value,  President 
French  writes,  "This  money  from  Dr.  Pearsons 
was  the  first  money  given  to  us  as  general  endow- 
ment funds.  Because  of  his  reputation  for  wisdom 
as  well  as  generosity  in  his  giving,  it  has  been  of  great 
value  to  us,  to  be  known  as  one  of  his  children. 
Our  college  is  an  especially  good  example  of  the 
kind  of  institution  in  which  he  believes  and  which 
he  desires  to  help.  His  pioneer  work  in  helping  the 
small  western  Christian  college,  I  consider  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  the  country  at  large.  On 
patriotic  as  well  as  on  Christian  grounds  he  could 
have  done  nothing  wiser  or  more  far-reaching  for 
good  with  his  money."  This  Presbyterian  College 
has  made  a  good  name  for  itself,  and  in  a  few 
years,  with  a  more  ample  endowment,  will  become 
one  of  the  important  educational  institutions  of  the 
state. 

Yankton  College,  Yankton,  South  Dakota,  has 
received  generous  aid  from  Dr.  Pearsons.  He 
greatly  admired  the  character  and  work  of  Rev. 
Joseph  Ward,  founder  of  the  college,  pastor  of  the 
First  Congregational  Church  of  the  city,  friend 
and  promoter  of  all  the  religious  interests  of  the  state, 
whose  service  as  educator  and  Christian  minister 
was  cut  short  by  his  death  in  1889.  Two  years 
later  he  offered  the  college  $50,000.00  on  condition 
that  $150,000.00  more  were  raised.  If  buildings 
and  campus  were  worth  at  that  time  a  little  less 
than  $50,000,  and  the  debt  was  hardly  less  than  that 

154 


GIFTS  TO  OTHER  WESTERN  COLLEGES 

sum,  it  would  seem  as  if  hope  of  success  in  meeting 
these  conditions  were  slight  indeed.  But  through 
the  efforts  of  the  Rev.  W.  B.  D.  Gray,  seconded  by 
the  untiring  zeal  and  self-sacrificing  service  of  Mrs. 
Ward,  so  much  was  secured  that  part  of  the  pledge 
was  redeemed  in  1893  and  the  remainder  at  Com- 
mencement in  June,  1895.  The  panic  of  1893,  the 
fact  that  many  of  the  contributors  were  unable  to 
pay  what  they  had  promised  and  the  general  decrease 
in  the  price  of  land,  greatly  reduced  the  actual  value 
of  the  subscription.  But  the  debt  was  paid,  and 
Ward  Science  Hall  was  erected  and  dedicated  with- 
out incurring  any  new  obligations.  In  1895  the 
Doctor  urged  President  Warren,  then  at  the  head 
of  a  College  in  Utah,  to  leave  the  college  he  was  then 
serving,  and  if  called  to  Yankton,  as  he  was  very 
shortly  afterward,  to  accept  the  call,  difficult  as  the 
position  would  be  to  fill.  Almost  the  first  advice 
he  gave  the  new  President  was  to  reduce  expenses. 
This  was  done,  both  in  1898  and  1899,  able  men  put 
upon  a  salary  of  $800  a  year,  an  amount  upon  which 
it  was  very  hard  to  live. 

In  the  spring  of  1900  the  Doctor  offered  the  Presi- 
dent $50,000.00  if  the  debt,  which  in  spite  of  every 
effort  had  been  increasing  until  it  had  reached  the 
sum  of  $30,000.00,  was  paid  by  March  1st.  The 
money  was  raised  chiefly  in  small  gifts,  though  one 
gift  of  $5,000.00  from  a  gentleman  in  the  East,  whose 
name  was  concealed,  changed  doubt  and  despair  into 
cheer  and  certainty.  By  June,  1906,  $90,000.00 
had  been  secured  for  buildings  and  endowment,  and 

155 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

to  this  sum  Dr.  Pearsons  added  $30,000.  In  speak- 
ing of  his  "princely  generosity,"  Dr.  Warren  writes 
"He  stretched  forth  a  generous  hand  to  feeble  begin- 
nings which  other  great  givers  refuse  to  consider, 
and  by  his  benefactions  made  early  and  large  success 
possible.  Childless,  himself,  the  colleges  and  the 
young  people  in  them  are  his  children.  In  them 
are  thousands  of  teachers  and  students  who  not 
only  now  while  he  is  still  with  us,  but  to  the  last  day 
of  their  lives  will  rise  up  and  call  him  blessed." 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  if  Dr.  Pearsons 
had  failed  to  come  to  the  rescue,  the  college  could  not 
have  survived  the  pressure  of  continued  deficit  and 
the  panic  of  1893.  It  was  the  timeliness  of  his  gift 
as  well  as  its  size  which  gave  confidence,  as  well  as 
relieving  the  college  from  burdens  almost  unbear- 
able. The  college  is  now  well  established,  though 
as  a  flourishing  institution  it  demands  far  larger 
means  than  at  present  are  at  its  disposal.  The 
President  and  Trustees  are  now  seeking  to  obtain, 
for  buildings  and  further  endowment  not  less  than 
$250,000.00  by  the  end  of  the  present  college  year. 
If  this  aim  is  not  realized  at  the  coming  Commence- 
ment, the  effort  will  doubtless  be  continued  till  that 
greatly  needed  sum  is  secured,  and  the  college  brought 
into  a  condition  where  it  will  be  better  able  to  do 
the  work  which  a  growing  and  prosperous  state 
requires. 

Fargo  College,  Fargo,  North  Dakota,  has  also 
received  a  large  sum  from  Dr.  Pearsons.  He  had 
believed  in  its  mission  from  the  first.  He  sympa- 

156 


GIFTS  TO  OTHER  WESTERN  COLLEGES 

thized  with  the  aim  and  efforts  of  its  first  President, 
Rev.  H.  C.  Simmons,  whose  sudden  death  was  caused 
by  his  devotion  to  Christian  education,  and  the  reli- 
gious interests  of  the  state.  But  for  a  gift  of  $50,- 
000.00  from  Dr.  Pearsons  that  first  endowment  of 
$200,000.00  could  not  have  been  obtained.  His 
later  gift  of  $20,000.00  for  the  completion  of  Dill 
Hall  was  equally  important  and  valuable.  "The 
first  gift  came,"  says  Dr.  Cragin,  the  President  of 
the  College,  "at  a  time  when  discouragement  was  so 
great  that  the  Trustees  were  nearly  ready  so  give 
up  the  institution.  That  gift  saved  its  life  and  ren- 
dered its  future  growth  possible.  No  wonder  that 
he  is  spoken  of  by  the  Trustees,  as  our  great  friend. 
If  he  could  see,"  adds  Dr.  Cragin,  "the  institution 
at  the  present  time,  with  the  Carnegie  Library,  a 
beautiful  building  almost  ready  for  use;  with  our 
splendid  faculty  representing  some  eighteen  univer- 
sities and  colleges,  including  Harvard,  Columbia, 
Oxford,  Leipzig,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Oberlin 
and  Beloit;  with  our  fine  body  of  students,  an  in- 
crease of  fifty  per  cent  as  compared  with  last  year; 
if  he  could  know  of  the  large  number  of  students 
who  are  earning  their  own  way,  he  would  feel  that 
he  has  never  made  a  better  investment."  That  this 
is  nearly  always  said  by  the  President  and  friend  of 
every  institution  he  has  aided  is  proof  of  the  wisdom 
of  his  beneficence  and  of  the  care  with  which  it  has 
been  bestowed. 

Rev.  E.  H.  Stickney,  one  of  the  Trustees  of  the 
college  and  connected  with  it  from  its  organization 

157 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

and  active  in  all  efforts  for  its  development,  writes, 
"Dr.  Pearsons'  gift  of  one  thousand  dollars  to  cur- 
rent funds  at  a  time  when  all  were  feeling  the  burden 
very  much  and  were  ready  to  give  up,  was  providen- 
tial. Two  out  of  five  members  of  the  Executive 
Committee  had  voted  to  close  the  doors  of  the  col- 
lege. Then  came  the  offer  of  $50,000.00  if  $150,000 
more  were  raised  for  endowment.  Impossible  as  it 
seemed  to  do  this  the  close  of  1902  saw  the  money 
in  hand.  A  later  gift  of  $20,000.00  completed  Dill 
Hall,  a  building  greatly  needed  for  administration 
and  scientific  purposes.  These  gifts  were  the  means 
of  saving  the  college.  They  came  at  a  time  to  remove 
discouragement  and  to  lay  the  foundations  upon 
which  a  great  institution  can  safely  and  surely  be 
built." 

Similar  testimony  is  given  by  George  E.  Pearley, 
Esq.,  one  of  the  most  faithful  of  the  Trustees,  and 
one  who  often  consulted  with  Dr.  Pearsons,  and 
who,  if  he  felt  at  first  that  the  conditions  of  his  gifts 
were  severe,  came  afterwards  to  look  upon  them  as 
"the  severity  of  kindness  and  of  high  wisdom." 
With  an  endowment  of  $200,000.00  well  invested, 
it  would  seem  as  if  a  college  with  a  goodly  number  of 
students,  in  the  commercial  center  of  a  rapidly 
growing  state  like  North  Dakota,  need  never  again 
be  in  a  critical  condition.  But  hard  times  and  ina- 
bility to  secure  any  considerable  sum  of  money  from 
the  friends  of  the  college  in  the  state  made  it  diffi- 
cult five  years  later,  and  well  nigh  out  of  the  ques- 
tion to  complete  the  Administrative  Building.  The 

158 


GIFTS  TO  OTHER  WESTERN  COLLEGES 

walls  were  up,  windows  and  doors  were  boarded  up. 
The  unfinished  structure  seemed  to  be  saying  to  all 
who  saw  it,  "You  perceive  the  weakness  of  the  insti- 
tution. It  is  about  to  die."  At  this  crisis  Dr. 
Pearsons  wrote,  "Finish  Dill  Hall.  I  enclose  a 
check  for  $4,000.00.  More  will  be  sent  as  needed, 
till  you  have  the  $20,000.00  you  ask  for."  That 
gift  ended  the  era  of  doubt  for  Fargo  College. 

The  financial  outlook  for  Drury  College  in  the 
years  1892  and  1893  was  gloomy  and  discouraging. 
Competing  schools  had  laid  upon  the  college  the 
necessity  of  an  extended  Curriculum  and  additions 
to  her  Faculty.  And  further  a  $20,000.00  debt  and 
increasing  annual  deficits  seemed  to  preclude  a  for- 
ward movement.  The  continual  call  upon  the 
friends  of  the  College  for  gifts  to  meet  annual  deficits 
had  become  burdensome  and  disheartening.  The 
friends  of  the  College  felt  that  light  must  break  in 
and  early  relief  must  come  or  twenty  years'  work 
be  jeopardized.  "Letters,  prayers  and  calls  were 
sent  everywhere — seeking  some  Moses  who  should 
lead  us  over  the  Red  Sea  of  our  difficulties.  It 
was  at  this  time  the  college  turned  its  hope  toward 
Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons  of  Chicago,  and  our  faith  in  his 
wise  judgment  and  benevolent  heart  was  not  con- 
founded." 

When  "our  necessities  and  opportunities  were  laid 
before  him"  by  Dr.  H.  T.  Fuller,  then  the  President, 
Dr.  Pearsons  surprised  him  by  saying  promptly, 
"I  will  give  the  college  $50,000.00  if  the  friends  of 
college  will  give  $100,000.00  more.  Or  I  will  cover 

159 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

this  amount  in  two  pledges — giving  $25,000.00,  if 
you  will  raise  $50,000.00.  This  generous  pledge 
brought  comfort  and  hope  and  some  trembling  to 
the  college,  and  the  campaign  was  opened  with  an 
effort  to  meet  the  first  conditional  offer,  and  the 
amount  was  raised  by  January  1st,  1894.  Dr.  Pear- 
sons sent  forward  his  check  for  $25,000.00  and  it 
looked  wonderfully  good  to  the  college.  Again  the 
friends  of  the  institution  rallied  with  determination 
to  meet  the  second  conditional  gift  of  $25,000.00, 
and  it  was  met  January  1st,  1895,  and  Dr.  Pearsons 
forwarded  his  second  check  for  $25,000.00  more. 

None  except  those  upon  the  ground  could  under- 
stand the  new  joy  and  hope  these  gifts  of  Dr.  Pearsons 
inspired.  The  future  of  Drury  College  was  felt  to 
be  secure.  New  gifts  would  come  easier  since  future 
donors  would  be  assured  their  gifts  would  not  be 
lost. 

This  royal  help  of  Dr.  Pearsons  made  his  name  a 
household  word  in  the  whole  Southwest,  and  led 
many  schools  and  even  individuals  to  write  to  this 
benefactor  for  aid.  The  college  and  city  now  desired 
to  have  this  great  donor  visit  the  Southwest  and 
the  Faculty  and  the  City  Council  extended  to  him 
a  pressing  invitation  to  come;  finally,  in  April,  1901, 
Dr.  Pearsons  and  his  beloved  wife  found  it  conven- 
ient to  visit  Springfield  while  on  their  journey  to 
Eureka  Springs  for  a  brief  rest.  Great  preparations 
were  made  to  make  their  visit  notable  and  the  whole 
body  of  the  faculty  and  students  went  to  the  depot 
to  welcome  them  and  escort  them  to  the  college. 

160 


GIFTS  TO  OTHER  WESTERN  COLLEGES 

A  carriage  was  decorated  with  college  colors  and  the 
two  higher  classes  planned  to  draw  them  to  the  col- 
lege grounds.  But  the  unpretentious  benefactor 
declined  this  offer  with  thanks  and  desired  to  drive 
down  in  "his  own  hired  carriage."  He  was  driven 
down  to  the  grounds  and  halted  before  the  splen- 
did edifice  that  had  been  made  possible  by  his  gift, 
and  he  greatly  admired  it,  and  told  his  companions 
that  it  made  him  very  happy  to  see  it.  After  prom- 
ising to  be  at  morning  Chapel  exercises  they  retired 
to  the  hotel  for  the  night. 

The  visitors  were  on  hand  early,  and  the  faculty, 
students  and  many  from  the  city  were  present  to 
greet  them.  All  saw  Dr.  Pearsons  and  his  wife  and 
heard  his  unique  speech.  The  following  are  a  few 
excerpts  from  his  address. 

"Faculty,  Students  and  Citizens,  if  my  tongue 
were  tipped  with  eloquence,  I  would  throw  the  tip 
away,  for  I  wish  to  talk  a  little  plain  common-sense. 
I  am  intensely  interested  in  young  men 
and  women.  I  want  to  give  the  poor  boy  a  chance. 
I  have  a  little  fund  of  $150,000.00  which  I  loan  to 
young  men  and  women  through  college  treasuries, 
and  I  have  never  lost  a  dollar.  ...  I  was 
introduced  at  Beloit  College  as  Dr.  Pearsons,  C.  B. 
(College  Builder).  At  another  place  as  holding  the 
degree  of  P.  E.  (Professor  of  Endowments).  I  made 
my  money  by  strict  economy.  I  never  spent  a 
dollar  foolishly.  I  never  saw  a  horse  race.  I  never 
saw  a  ball  game.  I  never  went  to  a  theatre. 

"Some  say  I  am  close  fisted;  I  am.  Some  call 
11  161 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

me  an  old  Puritan.  I  am  proud  of  it.  My  habits 
are  simple.  I  rise  early.  I  attend  strictly  to  busi- 
ness. I  have  made  my  money  honestly,  I  take 
advantage  of  no  man. 

"I  advise  rich  men  to  put  their  money  in 
colleges  out  west,  Christian  colleges.  ...  A 
friend  of  mine  lately  told  me  that  he  was  building 
a  monument  for  himself  and  family  in  the  cemetery 
that  would  cost  him  $40,000.00.  I  told  him  I  was 
building  a  monument  for  myself  and  wife  that  would 
cost  over  $5,000,000.00,  and  this  monument  is 
associated  with  the  Christian  colleges  in  the  land. 

"Young  men,  if  you  amount  to  anything  in  this 
world  you  must  hustle.  Young  men  and  women, 
the  promised  land  is  before  you.  You  must  hustle 
to  obtain  it.  ... 

"Grit  makes  the  man,  the  lack  of  it,  the  chump, 
Therefore  young  man  take  hold,  hang  on  and  hump." 

In  honor  of  this  visit  the  college  gave  a  holiday 
to  its  students  and  the  visitors  looked  over  all  the 
college  buildings  and  in  the  afternoon  the  President 
gave  a  reception  to  the  visitors  and  many  citizens 
of  Springfield  called  and  paid  their  sincere  respects. 

In  1908  Dr.  Pearsons  again  came  to  the  help  of 
Drury  College,  with  the  handsome  gift  of  $20,000.00, 
making  a  total  in  gifts  of  $70,000.00. 

In  the  present  hopeful  outlook  for  Drury  College 
Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons  is  regarded  as  the  man  and  sol- 
dier who  "stood  in  the  breach,"  and  his  large  gifts, 
which  were  accumulated  honestly,  will  continually 
bless  the  work  of  Drury  College. 

162 


GIFTS  TO  OTHER  WESTERN  COLLEGES 

The  success  of  a  later  campaign  for  $250,000.00 
depended  very  largely  upon  the  judgment  of  Dr. 
Pearsons.  A  number  of  people,  friendly  to  the 
college,  hesitated  about  additional  gifts.  Dr.  J.  H. 
George,  the  President,  consulted  with  the  Doctor 
and  received  from  him,  not  only  a  contribution  for 
the  fund,  but  also  his  unqualified  and  hearty  endorse- 
ment of  the  proposition  in  the  interests  of  Christian 
education.  This  opinion  of  Dr.  Pearsons  was  much 
quoted  in  satisfying  liberal  friends  of  Education 
that  an  investment  in  cash  in  Drury  College  would 
yield  ample  and  satisfactory  returns  in  the  way  of 
fitting  young  men  and  women  for  their  life  work. 
Drury  regards  the  Doctor  as  the  one  man  who  has 
stood  firm,  strong  and  hearty  in  favor  of  the  insti- 
tution, and  has  created  a  sentiment  of  confidence, 
among  the  generous  patrons  of  education  through- 
out the  country,  so  that  it  is  now  confidently  under- 
taking to  increase  the  endowment  by  half  a  million 
dollars,  to  meet  the  growing  needs  of  the  Institution. 


163 


XII 
AID  FOR  BEREA  COLLEGE 


XII 
AID  FOR  BEREA  COLLEGE 

BEREA  College  was  founded  in  1855.  It  was 
located  in  the  Village  of  Berea,  Kentucky, 
which  is  about  one  hundred  and  thirty-one 
miles  south  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  on  the  Louis- 
ville and  Nashville  Railway.  Rev.  John  G.  Fee,  one 
of  its  founders,  said  of  it,  "It  is  a  dreary  place,"  but 
prayer,  consecration  and  untiring  effort  have  built 
up  here  one  of  the  most  remarkable  and  useful  educa- 
tional institutions  in  America.  In  1910  it  had  1400 
students,  over  1000  of  them  living  in  buildings  or 
barracks  on  the  campus.  It  owns  over  170  acres  of 
farming  land  and  4000  acres  of  forest  land,  purchased 
in  order  that  students  may  have  practical  lessons  in 
forestry.  It  has  a  system  of  water  works  which  cost 
$50,000.00  to  install.  Several  of  its  buildings  have 
been  erected  almost  entirely  by  student  labor.  This 
is  true  of  the  chapel  which  seats  more  than  1500  peo- 
ple. The  brick  was  burned  on  the  farm  and  the  tim- 
ber obtained  from  the  mountains.  The  annual  bud- 
get, which  is  on  a  very  economic  scale,  in  1910  was 
$89,000.00.  Over  and  above  the  income  from  $900,- 
000.00  endowment,  a  large  deficit  has  to  be  raised 

167 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

every  year.  This  budget  provides  the  kind  of  edu- 
cation which  the  mountain  people  especially  need. 
These  people  have  been  belated  in  their  development 
by  living  in  comparative  isolation  for  two  centuries, 
and  need  domestic,  agricultural  and  economic  train- 
ing, as  well  as  that  which  fits  one  to  be  a  school- 
teacher or  to  follow  a  profession.  There  are  depart- 
ments for  instruction  in  nursing,  domestic  science,  in 
printing,  brick-making,  mountain  farming,  carpenter- 
ing, blacksmithing,  the  selection  and  care  of  stock.  In 
these  departments  students  are  trained  for  the  practi- 
cal work  of  life.  Board  is  furnished  at  cost  and 
tuition  is  low.  Students  are  encouraged  to  earn 
their  way  by  their  work.  From  1859  the  school 
was  for  a  time  suspended  on  account  of  the  feeling 
of  hostility  in  the  state  which  had  arisen  against  it, 
and  during  the  Civil  War  it  was  twice  interrupted 
by  the  presence  of  armies.  In  1866  it  admitted  the 
first  colored  students,  obtained  a  charter  as  Berea 
College,  and  until  1904  youth  of  both  sexes,  white 
and  colored,  profited  from  its  instructions.  In 
that  year  the  legislature  of  Kentucky,  yielding  to  a 
growing  pressure  from  many  sections  of  the  South, 
passed  a  law  requiring  the  separation  of  the  races  in 
all  the  schools  of  the  state.  The  law  was  obeyed, 
and  when  its  legality  was  upheld  by  the  Supreme 
Court,  the  Trustees  of  the  College  promptly  set  aside 
$200,000  of  its  then  scanty  endowment,  for  the  sup- 
port of  its  colored  students  in  institutions  like  Fisk 
University,  Nashville,  Tennessee,  where  at  one  time 
141  were  taught.  A  campaign  for  $200,000  more 

168 


AID  FOR  BEREA  COLLEGE 

was  immediately  begun  and  when  the  money  was 
secured,  a  site  between  Louisville  and  Lexington 
was  purchased:  there  under  the  name  of  the  Lincoln 
Institute  of  Kentucky,  a  new  and  separate  school 
was  started  on  its  independent  career.  This  move- 
ment left  Berea  free  to  devote  itself  with  greater 
consecration  to  the  cultivation  of  the  special  field 
open  to  it,  the  training  of  the  young  people  of  the 
mountains.  For  this  work  increased  endowment 
has  been  sought  and  obtained,  but  more  and  better 
buildings  are  still  greatly  needed.  In  confining  its 
efforts  to  this,  at  first  seemingly  more  limited  field 
the  friends  of  the  college  have  received  sympathy 
and  aid  from  many  of  the  most  influential  and  far- 
seeing  people  in  America.  As  an  example  of  this, 
one  may  point  to  the  great  meeting  held  on  Lincoln's 
birthday,  February  11,  1911,  in  Carnegie  Hall, 
New  York,  at  which  such  men  as  the  Hon.  Seth 
Low  of  New  York,  and  Governor  Woodrow  Wilson 
of  New  Jersey  were  present,  and  in  which  they  took 
a  prominent  part.  At  that  meeting  a  letter  from 
President  Taft  was  read  in  which  he  said,  "Berea 
is  doing  a  great  work  in  educating  the  mountaineers 
of  the  South." 

Governor  Wilson  of  Kentucky  wrote,  "No  school 
has  done,  or  can  do  so  much  for  this  Appalachian 
Region  as  Berea." 

Justice  Harlan,  as  one  familiar  with  the  moun- 
taineers of  the  South,  wrote — "What  these  moun- 
taineers need,  who  are  by  nature  manly  Americans 
is  opportunity.  Give  them  churches,  and  school- 

169 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

houses,  and  financial  aid,  and  great  results  for  the 
country  will  follow." 

As  one  of  the  speakers  at  that  meeting,  President 
Frost  of  Berea  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  these 
mountaineers  are  living  in  a  state  of  society  not 
unlike  that  of  the  time  of  Alfred  the  Great  of  England, 
that  they  are  of  the  best  possible  stock  with  many 
noble  traditions,  the  finest  traits  of  character,  and 
eager  for  a  training  that  will  make  their  mountains 
a  better  place  in  which  be  to  born  and  to  live. 

Governor  Wilson,  of  New  Jersey,  himself  a  south- 
erner, and  acquainted  with  the  mountain  region  of 
the  South  from  boyhood,  said — "When  you  are  asked 
to  subscribe  for  Berea  you  are  asked  to  subscribe 
for  a  renewal  of  the  life  of  the  country  at  its  sources. 

"These  people,  living  as  they  do,  remote  from  the 
great  routes  of  travel,  in  the  pockets  of  the  mountains, 
on  their  slopes,  amid  their  forests,  are  of  an  old 
stock,  Scotch-Irish,  are  conservative  by  nature,  yet 
thoughtful  as  well  as  imaginative,  are  the  kind  of 
people  out  of  whom  the  best  kind  of  American  citi- 
zens can  be  developed.  President  Lincoln  was  of 
them.  He  knew  them,  honored  them  because  he 
knew  them,  and  trusted  them,  and  they  did  not 
disappoint  him  in  the  trying  times  of  the  Civil  War. 
There  are  three  million  of  these  southern  whites 
living  in  the  mountains  which  belong  to  the  ends  of 
seven  states,  grouped  around  East  Tennessee,  to  be 
educated." 

The  Charter  of  Berea  reads :  "In  order  to  promote 
the  cause  of  Christ,  primarily  by  contributing  to 

170 


AID  FOR  BEREA  COLLEGE 

the  spiritual  and  material  welfare  of  the  mountain 
region  of  the  South,  affording  to  young  people  of 
character  and  promise  a  thorough  Christian  educa- 
tion, elementary,  industrial,  secondary,  normal  and 
collegiate  with  opportunities  for  manual  labor  as  an 
assistance  in  self-support." 

The  school  was  begun  by  slaveholders,  who  did 
not  believe  in  slavery,  who  hoped  that  through 
education  its  gradual  abolition  might  be  brought 
about.  Although  slavery  has  gone,  the  purpose  for 
which  the  school  was  founded,  the  education  of  the 
children  of  the  sturdy  people  of  the  mountain  regions 
of  the  South,  remains  .  .  .  They  need  a  different 
training  from  that  furnished  in  northern  academies, 
or  in  the  high  schools  and  colleges  of  the  South. 
All  that  is  best  in  their  traditions  and  habits  should 
be  preserved.  They  should  be  encouraged  to  con- 
tinue their  fireside  industries,  weaving  and  the  like. 
As  not  all  of  the  young  people  can  attend  school  and 
none  of  the  older  people,  efforts  are  made  to  reach 
them  in  the  summer  by  going  among  them  and  living 
among  them  in  tents  and  giving  instruction  in  house- 
keeping, improvement  in  the  management  of  farms, 
the  raising  of  stock,  and  exciting  interest  in  these 
and  kindred  subjects  by  the  use  of  the  stereopticon. 
Travelling  libraries  are  kept  constantly  in  circulation. 
Coming  thus  into  close  touch  with  the  people  in  their 
homes,  a  desire  is  created  to  attend  the  school  at 
Berea,  even  at  the  great  sacrifice  which  must  often 
be  made  to  do  so.  That  Berea  is  doing  something 
toward  helping  these  mountaineers  into  a  new  and 

171 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

larger  life,  while  yet  encouraging  them  to  remain  in 
their  mountain  homes  is  evident  from  the  fact  that 
every  year  many  more  students  apply  for  admission 
to  its  privileges  than  can  find  shelter  in  its  buildings. 
Dr.  Pearsons  was  interested  in  Berea  by  a  visit 
from  its  President,  W.  G.  Frost,  in  1895.  At  first 
he  declined  to  put  it  on  his  list  of  college  benefici- 
aries, but  he  agreed  to  go  to  Berea  for  Commence- 
ment and  after  thorough  investigation  said  in  public 
that  as  soon  as  Berea  would  raise  $150,000.00  he 
would  add  $50,000.00  to  that  amount.  He  made  no 
limitation  as  to  time.  At  the  end  of  four  years  the 
money  was  in  the  treasury  and  Dr.  Pearsons  sent 
his  check  for  the  amount  he  had  promised.  Another 
pledge  of  $50,000.00  made  on  the  same  conditions 
was  paid  in  July,  1900.  Then  in  1904  he  paid  as 
called  for  $50,000.00  for  a  system  to  bring  water 
to  the  college  campus  and  thus  render  the  hygienic 
conditions  of  the  college  what  they  should  be.  This 
gift,  Dr.  Pearsons  regards  as  the  best  gift  he  has  ever 
made  to  any  institution  or  to  any  object.  On  his 
89th  birthday  writing  from  Pasadena,  he  promised 
$25,000.00  for  a  dormitory  for  boys  and  sent  the 
money  in  a  month.  To  this  no  conditions  were 
attached.  During  that  year  he  promised  $100,- 
000.00  as  soon  as  four  times  that  sum  was  secured, 
and  the  pledge  was  redeemed  in  January,  1911. 

Writing  November  16,  1910,  President  Frost  says: 
"I  went  to  Chicago  to  see  Dr.  Pearsons  in  January 
or  February,  1895,  and  had  an  interview  with  him 
in  his  office  in  the  usual  form.  I  was  introduced  by 


AID  FOR  BEREA   COLLEGE 

Dr.  Simeon  Gilbert,  former  editor  of  the  The  Advance. 
The  Doctor  asked  me  a  great  many  questions,  and 
then  said  that  he  was  powerless  to  do  anything  for  a 
year  or  more  at  least,  and  waved  me  out  of  the  office. 
Being  in  Chicago,  I  took  the  time  to  call  upon  a  num- 
ber of  leading  men,  in  order  to  make  them  acquainted 
with  Berea's  work  and  opportunity.  Shortly  after 
I  left  the  city,  it  seems  Dr.  Pearsons  called  a  little 
conference  of  advisers  as  to  Berea,  and  among  them 
several  of  the  gentlemen  whom  I  had  just  seen  and 
'posted.' 

"The  result  was  that  a  few  weeks  later  Dr.  Pearsons 
wrote  me  saying  that  if  Dr.  Fifield  would  attend  the 
next  Commencement  at  Berea  to  give  the  address, 
he  would  come  with  him  and  visit  the  college.  He 
came  and  was  entertained  at  our  house.  He  investi- 
gated the  institution  from  the  library  to  the  kitchen, 
and  took  great  delight  in  the  stalwart  mountaineers 
who  filled  our  Tabernacle  on  Commencement  Day. 
At  the  close  of  the  exercises,  he  made  a  speech  which 
was  much  appreciated  and  at  the  end  gave  us  our 
first  pledge.  Realizing  that  Berea  did  not  have  an 
Alumni  and  constituency  like  other  schools  he  waived 
the  time  limit:  'Whenever  Berea  College  will  raise 
$150,000.00  for  additional  endowment,  I  will  add  $50,- 
000.00  to  it.' 

"This  pledge  was  an  immediate  introduction  to 
people  of  means  and  patriotism  everywhere.  We 
had  the  double  burden  of  raising  money  for  current 
expenses  at  the  same  time  we  were  working  for  the 
new  endowment.  It  took  us  four  years,  but  in  1899 
when  we  completed  this  endowment  we  had  a  list 
of  friends. 

"  The  whole  endowment  had  drawn  attention  to  the 
mountain  region  as  nothing  before,  and  Dr.  Pearsons 
received  many  letters  of  congratulation  from  public 

173 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

men  all  over  the  country.  In  a  few  months,  he  re- 
peated the  offer  of  $50,000.00  on  condition  of  our 
raising  $150,000.00  more.  This  time  the  task  was 
completed  in  a  year. 

"Berea  then  entered  upon  a  course  of  internal 
development,  adapting  its  methods  more  carefully 
to  the  peculiar  conditions  of  its  mountain  field.  The 
number  of  students  increased  rapidly.  The  new 
friends  who  had  been  enlisted  for  the  Pearsons' 
endowment  helped  us  in  the  construction  of  the 
industrial  building  and  in  other  improvements. 
Some  of  these  friends  interested  themselves  in  helping 
us  to  buy  a  considerable  forest  reserve. 

"The  project  of  piping  water  from  certain  springs 
on  this  forest  reserve  to  the  college  grounds  in  Berea 
was  kept  in  mind  as  we  purchased  land,  and  plans 
and  specifications  were  laid  before  Dr.  Pearsons  in 
1902,  and  in  1903  he  made  his  pledge  to  Dr.  Barton 
of  $40,000.00  for  these  water  works,  and  an 
additional  $10,000.00  for  sewers  and  plumbing. 
This,  at  once,  put  Berea  on  an  hygienic  basis.  We 
had  not  realized  what  risks  and  deprivations  were 
involved  in  our  limited  water  supply. 

"Then  came  the  gift  of  $25,000.00  for  Pearsons 
Hall,  a  dormitory  for  young  men.  Our  only  men's 
dormitory  was  Howard  Hall,  built  by  the  Freed- 
man's  Bureau  right  after  the  war,  a  building  whose 
very  floors  had  been  trodden  through  by  honest  wear. 
The  majority  of  our  young  men  were  living  in  tem- 
porary quarters  in  the  upper  stories  of  the  Industrial 
Buildings  or  in  barracks  of  cheap  construction.  This 
gift  of  Pearsons  Hall  was  particularly  cheering,  com- 
ing as  it  did,  when  we  were  in  the  agony  of  raising 
the  'Adjustment  Fund.' 

"The  offer  under  which  we  are  now  working, 
November,  1910,  and  which  was  made  successful  by 

174 


AID  FOR  BEREA  COLLEGE 

gifts  from  more  than  eighty  people,  is  for  $100,000.00, 
conditioned  upon  our  securing  $400,000.00  more  by 
the  end  of  this  calendar  year.  This  offer  came  at  a 
time  when  I  was  just  breaking  down  from  too  eager 
and  incessant  work,  and  the  whole  movement  had 
to  wait  for  my  recovery.  Perhaps,  we  should  have 
despaired  had  it  not  been  for  a  $50,000  bequest  from 
John  S.  Kennedy  of  New  York;  following  this,  our 
Trustees  during  my  absence  secured  other  important 
pledges. 

"Dr.  Pearsons  has  done  far  more  than  any  other 
man  for  Berea  and  for  the  entire  mountain  region. 
He  has  given  us  the  things  that  were  most  needed, 
and  at  the  time  when  they  were  needed,  and  he  has 
given  them  in  such  a  way  as  to  enlist  a  multitude  of 
other  friends  in  the  cause  of  Berea  and  in  the  general 
cause  of  mountain  uplift.  He  has  right  to  a  happy 
old  age." 

Rev.   William  E.   Barton,  D.  D.,   of  Oak  Park, 

Illinois,  a  graduate  and  one  of  the  Trustees  of  the 
College,  in  describing  the  installation  of  the  Water 
Supply  and  the  efforts  to  obtain  it  says: 

"It  is  difficult  to  speak  in  terms  other  than  super- 
lative of  Dr.  Pearsons'  gifts  to  Berea  College.  Twice 
in  succession  he  gave  to  it  conditional  gifts  of  $50,- 
000.00,  each,  requiring  the  raising  of  $150.000.00 
more,  and  now  has  pending  an  offer  of  $100,000.00 
upon  the  condition  of  the  securing  of  $400,000.00 
additional,  making  a  total  of  $900,000.00  Endow- 
ment secured  to  the  Institution  under  the  leverage 
of  his  conditional  offers.  His  gift  of  $25,000.00  for 
Pearsons'  Hall,  secured  the  erection  of  the  first  modern 
building  for  men,  and  his  interest  in  the  Institution 
has  been  alert,  continuous  and  helpful. 

175 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

"But,  of  all  his  benefactions  to  this  important 
institution,  his  gift  of  the  Water  Works  stands  out  as 
perhaps  the  most  unique  and  interesting  gift  ever 
made  to  an  American  College. 

"Berea  College,  admirably  located  for  the  varied 
work  which  it  has  to  do,  stood  subject  to  great  incon- 
venience in  the  lack  of  an  adequate  water  supply. 
Rev.  John  G.  Fee,  himself,  told  of  the  dreariness  of 
the  place  when  he  first  visited  it,  and  of  the  rebuke 
that  came  to  him  through  the  word  of  a  bystander 
living  in  the  neighborhood.  *  It  is  a  dreary  place,' 
said  Mr.  Fee,  and  Mr.  Rawlins  replied  in  the  words 
of  the  hymn,  *  Prisons  would  palaces  prove,  if  Jesus 
abides  with  us  there.'  *  There  is  no  water,'  said 
Mr.  Fee;  'Moses  smote  the  rock  and  water  gushed 
out,'  answered  the  neighbor.  'Dig  a  well  where 
we  stand,'  said  Mr.  Fee,  and  the  well  was  dug. 

"In  the  early  years  that  and  other  wells  supplied 
the  school,  but  the  time  came  when  another  smiting 
of  the  rock  was  necessary.  The  great  growth  of  the 
institution  rendered  the  water  supply  dangerously 
inadequate.  There  was  peril  from  fire  and  pestilence, 
for  the  town  extended  far  beyond  all  adequate  water 
resources  and  contaminated  the  surface  springs. 
Epidemics  of  typhoid  fever  were  annual  and  fire- 
insurance  premiums  rose  to  an  almost  prohibitive  rate. 

"The  problem  of  securing  water  was  not  easy  to 
solve.  No  sufficient  supply  was  within  five  miles 
and  the  springs  were  widely  scattered  over  a  large 
area.  Through  the  wise  foresight  of  President  Frost 
a  large  domain  had  been  secured  as  a  forest  preserve 
and  this  was  extended  so  as  to  include  a  number  of 
pure  flowing  springs.  A  right  of  way  also  was  ar- 
ranged for  and  a  series  of  surveys  and  testings  extend- 
ing over  many  months  gradually  brought  the  plan  to 
a  point  of  feasibility. 

176 


AID  FOR  BEREA  COLLEGE 

"At  this  stage  of  the  proceeding,  a  Chicago  Trustee 
took  the  plans  of  the  survey  to  Dr.  Pearsons,  and  by 
appointment  carried  them  to  his  home  where  he  went 
carefully  over  them  with  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Pearsons. 
Every  important  point  in  the  situation  was  canvassed 
and  at  length  the  promise  was  made  of  $50,000.00  to 
install  a  complete  and  permanent  water  system  for 
Berea  College. 

"There  were  ten  large  springs,  five  in  each  of  the 
two  valleys.  The  ground  plan  of  the  reservoir 
position  looked  like  two  arms  of  a  man  spread  out 
and  with  five  fingers  on  the  end  of  each  and  a  spring 
at  the  end  of  every  finger  tip.  Ten  large  stone 
reservoirs  were  built  and  pipes  laid  from  each  to 
junction  points,  from  which  the  water  was  conveyed 
down  the  two  valleys  to  another  junction,  thence 
carried  in  a  single  pipe  across  the  valley  and  over  a 
gap  200  feet  high  to  the  College  Campus  five  miles 
away.  It  was  a  great  engineering  feat,  embracing 
very  many  practical  difficulties,  and  when  it  was 
finally  completed  and  water  was  successfully  piped 
to  the  campus  with  sufficient  pressure  to  carry  it  to 
the  tops  of  the  buildings,  a  new  chapter  in  the  develop- 
ment of  Berea  College  began.  Health,  cleanliness, 
security  from  fire,  all  took  on  new  promise,  and  again, 
as  of  old,  the  rock  had  been  smitten  and  abundant 
streams  of  water  gushed  forth. 

"Dr.  Pearsons  has  repeatedly  said  that  no  gift  ever 
made  by  him  gave  him  such  satisfaction  as  this. 
He  has  said  of  it  that  he  regarded  it  as  a  definite 
inspiration  and  impulse  from  God,  and  profoundly 
believed  that  in  doing  this  he  was  obeying  a  distinct 
divine  command.  Perhaps  no  gift  ever  made  to  an 
American  college  is  so  fitted  to  appeal  to  the  imagina- 
tion or  so  visibly  fitted  to  supply  a  great,  imperative 
and  permanent  need.  Buildings  may  be  destroyed, 

12  177 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

endowments  may  be  squandered,  trusts  may  be 
betrayed,  but  so  long  as  human  beings  need  water, 
Berea  will  need  this  gift,  and  so  long  as  water  flows 
down  hill,  the  plans  on  which  these  Water  Works 
were  constructed  will  continue  to  be  of  service  to  the 
great  and  growing  institution  at  Berea." 

While  a  believer  in  higher  education  for  those  who 
are  prepared  for  it,  Dr.  Pearsons  as  a  practical 
man  has  believed  thoroughly  in  providing  for  the 
people  of  mountains  the  kind  of  instruction  best 
fitted  for  their  wants.  He  has  confidence  in  their 
ability  and  in  their  desire  to  make  the  most  of  them- 
selves. He  is  in  deep  sympathy  with  them.  "I 
am  a  mountain  man.  I  was  once  as  poor  as  they  are, 
and  as  ignorant."  Hence  when  he  had  become 
familiar  with  the  work  which  Berea  has  been  raised 
up  to  do,  he  devoted  large  sums  for  its  enlargement. 

That  these  gifts  have  been  appreciated  is  indicated 
by  letters  like  the  following  from  Rev.  J.  A.  Rogers, 
Woodstock,  Illinois,  dated  June  18,  1904.  Mr. 
Rogers  was  one  of  the  founders  of  Berea  and  wrote 
as  one  who  had  knowledge.  His  letter  was  addressed 
to  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Pearsons,  as  the  latter  was  as  much 
interested  in  the  gift  as  her  husband.  The  letter 
is  given  in  full  and  reads  as  follows: 

"Dr.  and  Mrs.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

Dear  Friends:  I  call  you  friends  for  you  have 
shown  yourselves  such  devoted  friends  that  any  one 
who  loves  Berea  College  as  I  have  loved  it  for  fifty 
years,  though  now  absent,  can  but  look  upon  you  as 
dear  and  choice  friends.  I  think  if  you  knew  the 

178 


AID  FOR  BEREA  COLLEGE 

joy  your  last  gift  to  Berea  of  the  Water  Works  has 
caused  your  hearts  would  sing  for  joy.  It  is  not  easy 
to  express  the  gratitude  we  all  feel,  and  we  rejoice 
not  only  in  the  present  blessing  through  this  gift  of 
yours  by  which  God's  gift  is  brought  to  men,  but 
generations  unborn  will  receive  help  through  this  flow 
of  the  pure  stream  of  life-giving  water.  As  the  oldest 
living  trustee  and  one  who  helped  lay  the  foundations 
of  Berea  College  in  a  little  shanty  of  a  schoolhouse,  I 
give  you  for  us  all,  our  grateful  thanks.  May  the 
God  of  all  blessings  bless  you  most  abundantly. 

Your  grateful  friend, 

J.  A.  ROGERS." 

As  other  gifts  from  Dr.  Pearsons  were  announced 
from  time  to  time,  letters  of  approval  and  congratu- 
lation came  from  Governor  Bradley  of  Kentucky 
and  ex-President  Roosevelt,  then  Governor  of  New 
York.  The  wonderful  development  of  the  institution 
and  its  widely  extended  influence  are  proof  that  no 
mistake  has  been  made  in  providing  so  generously 
for  its  endowment  and  its  buildings.  But  no  one 
has  been  able  to  appreciate  the  importance  and  value 
of  these  gifts  so  well  as  President  Frost,  who  has  been 
at  the  front  in  all  the  money-raising  campaigns. 

When  a  check  for  $25,000.00  for  the  Dormitory 
was  received,  he  wrote,  May  4,  1909: 

"You  are  the  most  astounding  man,  and  the  only 
man  I  know  who  can  do  something  more  remarkable 
than  D.  K.  Pearsons  ever  did  before.  Here  comes 
your  check  for  the  entire  amount  of  our  new  building. 
You  meant  to  shock  us,  and  we  were  shocked.  Treas- 
urer Osborne  hardly  knows  what  to  do  with  his 
responsibilities.  But  all  of  us  are  swept  away  by  a 

179 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

great  wave  of  love  and  gratitude  for  the  friend  who  has 
been  so  much  to  the  institution  and  to  each  one  of  us 
now  for  sixteen  years.  You  have  a  right  to  be  happy." 

In  another  letter  of  later  date  he  uses  these  same 
words, "You  have  a  right  to  be  happy,"  and  adds 
to  them,  "I  believe  you  are  happy." 

At  this  time  Berea  students  sent  this  telegram: — 

"Berea  students  and  workers  send  you  hearty 
thanks.  We  pledge  ourselves  to  follow  your  example 
in  unselfish  devotion  to  the  things  which  make  the 
world  better." 

In  approval  of  the  method  of  conditional  giving 
followed  so  largely  by  Dr.  Pearsons  and  criticized 
by  many,  Dr.  Frost  wrote,  as  late  as  March  1,  1911: 

"I  wish  to  go  on  record  every  time  I  can  as  com- 
mending the  specific  plan  of  conditional  gifts  which 
Dr.  Pearsons  has  pursued  so  consistently.  In  fact  if 
he  did  not  invent  the  plan,  he  has  given  currency  to  it 
beyond  any  other  giver,  so  that  many  others  must 
be  considered  as  following  in  the  line  of  his  example. 

"There  are  always  those  who  complain  against  this 
form  of  giving,  alleging  that  it  distresses  the  institu- 
tion and  seems  ungenerous  on  the  part  of  the  giver. 
It  is  my  sincere  conviction  that  the  only  way  in 
which  rich  men  can  give  large  gifts  without  doing 
ultimate  harm  by  weakening  the  hold  of  institutions 
on  the  general  public  and  drying  up  the  spirit  of 
benevolence  among  those  of  more  moderate  means  is 
to  make  their  gifts  conditional.  The  offer  of  a  large 
sum  on  such  conditions  always  compels  attention 
on  the  part  of  wealthy  people,  it  raises  sympathy,  it 
advertises  the  cause  and  it  finally  develops  a  wide 
circle  of  friends  and  supporters." 

180 


XIII 

AID  FOR  SOUTHERN  COLLEGES  OTHER  THAN 

BEREA 


XIII 

AID  FOR  SOUTHERN  COLLEGES  OTHER  THAN 
BEREA 

NEARLY  all  the  institutions  which  Dr.  Pearsons 
has  assisted  in  the  South  had  established 
a  name  for  themselves  before  he  interested 
himself  in  their  welfare.  He  recognized  fully 
the  need  of  the  South  for  the  kind  of  education 
in  which  he  believed  long  before  he  did  anything  to 
promote  it.  But  he  did  not  see  his  way  clear  to 
furnish  the  help  the  colleges  in  the  South  seemed  to 
demand  until  he  had  been  aiding  colleges  in  the 
North  nearly  or  quite  ten  years.  Yet  in  spite  of  the 
difficulties  with  which  they  contended  many  of  them 
had  done  and  were  doing  heroic  work  and  every  year 
were  sending  out  into  the  world  a  large  army  of 
well-trained  young  men  and  women.  Let  J.  Henry 
Harms,  President  of  Newberry  College,  Newberry, 
S.  C.,  a  Lutheran  Institution  founded  in  1856,  tell 
the  story  of  what  was  done  for  it.  It  is  too  well 
told  to  justify  the  omission  of  any  part  of  it. 

"DECEMBER  14,  1910. 

"Dr.  Pearsons  came  to  the  help  of  our  college  in 
1906.     The  college  was  preparing  to  celebrate  its 

183 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

fiftieth  anniversary.  Its  endowment  was  sadly 
insufficient,  the  opportunities  tremendous.  Under 
the  able  leadership  of  Dr.  James  A.  B.  Scherer,  at 
that  time  President,  an  effort  was  begun  to  raise 
money  for  the  institution.  Dr.  Pearsons  was  ap- 
pealed to  for  aid  in  the  undertaking.  In  his  own 
wise  and  thorough  way  he  inquired  into  the  merits 
of  the  appeal,  and  decided  to  give  us  $25,000.00 
provided  our  people  would  raise  the  sum  of  $50,000.00 
to  make  a  fund  of  $75,000.00  for  endowment.  His 
offer  was  accepted.  The  conditions  were  met.  And 
the  fund  was  raised. 

"In  the  first  place  this  offer  of  Dr.  Pearsons  was  a 
compliment  to  the  college.  It  was  an  endorsement 
that  the  people  needed.  It  renewed  their  faith  in  the 
institution.  They  argued  that  if  a  wise,  judicious 
giver  like  Dr.  Pearsons  gave  his  money  to  their  col- 
lege, then  their  college  must  be  more  worth  while 
than  even  they  imagined.  It  charmed  the  people. 
They  had  pride  in  their  institution.  But  it  was  the 
oratorical  sort  of  pride  that  says  nice  things  on  holi- 
days and  commencement.  Dr.  Pearsons'  offer  put 
their  pride  to  work.  That  is  one  of  the  best  things 
he  has  done  for  us.  He  made  the  college  bigger  in 
the  estimation  of  its  friends. 

"In  the  next  place  Dr.  Pearsons'  gifts  tirred  the 
people  up  to  give.  We  had  a  small  constituency. 
We  were  weak  financially.  It  looked  impossible  for 
such  a  handful  of  poor  Lutherans  to  raise  the  sum  of 
$50,000.00.  But  Dr.  Pearsons  had  flung  a  challenge 
at  them.  And  they  said  that  if  'an  old  abolition- 
ist,' as  he  calls  himself,  thinks  enough  of  our  college 
to  give  it  $25,000.00,  surely  we  who  know  the  college 
and  know  its  value  to  the  South,  can  raise  at  least 
twice  as  much.  And  they  did.  Dr.  Pearsons 
proved  to  be  the  right  sort  of  an  'abolitionist.' 

184 


OTHER  SOUTHERN  COLLEGES 

He  *  abolished'  the  slavery  of  hundreds  of  white 
people  in  this  state — their  slavery  to  limited  notions 
of  themselves,  their  money  and  their  college.  In  a 
few  months  after  the  offer  was  made  the  campaign 
wound  up  with  all  conditions  met.  It  was  an  epoch- 
maker  in  our  history.  Hundreds  of  people  gave  the 
college  money  who  never  gave  money  to  it  before. 
After  fifty  years  the  college  was  born  again.  And  I 
think  the  story  of  the  man  behind  the  gift  helped  as 
much  as  anything.  The  story  of  Dr.  Pearsons'  life 
stirred  the  people  everywhere.  The  spectacle  of  a 
man  deliberately  setting  himself  to  give  away  a 
fortune  simply  captured  the  imaginations  of  our 
warm-hearted  Southern  people.  It  stirred  their 
deepest  benevolent  emotions.  The  short  of  it  is: 
Dr.  Pearsons  is  our  benefactor,  not  so  much  because 
he  gave  us  money,  as  because  he  made  our  people 
give  it.  And  the  beauty  of  it  is  they  like  to  give, 
as  he  likes  to  give.  They  caught  his  secret,  the  secret 
he  received  from  the  Man  who  gave  himself  and  said 
'It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.' 

"Then  again  Dr.  Pearsons  helped  to  enlarge  the 
scope  of  our  college  work.  Our  particular  business 
in  the  South  is  to  help  the  poor  boy  get  an  education. 
Our  college  aims  to  help  the  boy  who  is  willing  to 
help  himself.  We  want  to  put  the  price  of  education 
down  within  the  reach  of  the  poorest  farmer's  son. 
We  find  hundreds  of  boys  back  in  the  country  who 
are  hungry  to  go  to  college,  but  cannot  quite  afford 
it.  There  are  hundreds  of  young  men  in  our  cotton- 
mill  villages  who  need  help  and  need  it  badly.  We 
want  to  help  these  farmers'  sons  and  'factory' 
boys.  To  get  these  boys  into  a  Christian  college 
is  the  biggest  moral  and  social  problem  in  our  state. 
And  that  was  what  we  were  after  when  Dr.  Pearsons' 
offer  came.  There  are  thousands  waiting  yet. 

185 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

We  could  have  twice  our  enrollment  if  we  had  the 
money  to  get  more  teachers  and  accommodations. 
We  have  done  well  with  Dr.  Pearsons'  money. 
Invested  at  eight  per  cent,  we  have  used  the  proceeds 
to  employ  three  new  teachers  and  enlarge  our  dormi- 
tories, laboratories  and  lecture  rooms.  We  have 
boys  here  who  are  working  their  way.  We  have 
forty-one  in  this  session  who  are  being  helped  with 
scholarships.  We  give  some  of  them  employment  at 
the  college.  Located  in  the  center  of  the  state,  we 
are  in  the  very  midst  of  ripe  and  ripening  opportuni- 
ties. With  our  reputation  for  thoroughness  and  econ- 
omy we  have  no  trouble  getting  students.  Our 
only  trouble  is  that  we  cannot  make  room  for  all 
who  want  to  come. 

"I  may  conclude  by  saying  that  Dr.  Pearsons  has 
helped  us  to  grow  in  every  way.  He  helped  to  put 
us  in  the  front  rank  of  southern  colleges.  He  showed 
us  our  possibilities.  With  an  endowment  of  little 
over  $102,000.00  we  are  maintaining  a  plant  of  ten 
buildings  and  a  teaching  force  of  fifteen.  It  takes 
strict  economy  to  pull  through.  Dr.  Pearsons  has 
made  us  realize  our  need  of  more  endowment.  We 
are  still  very  poor  but  most  ambitious  to  be  of  service. 
Dr.  Pearsons  has  been  our  partner  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  intelligent  Christian  manhood — the  greatest 
business  in  the  world. 

"We  like  Dr.  Pearsons  down  here.  On  May  6, 
1909,  he  sent  us  $10,000.00.  This  made  a  total  of 
$35,000.00  which  he  has  invested  in  Newberry  Col- 
lege. I  have  hung  a  fine  portrait  of  him  in  our 
Chapel.  The  students  shout  his  name  in  their 
college  yells.  In  further  recognition  of  what  we  owe 
to  him  we  are  at  work  raising  a  fund  of  $75,000.00 
to  be  called  after  the  name  of  his  sainted  wife. 

"I  regard  Dr.  Pearsons  as  one  of  the  greatest  men 

186 


OTHER  SOUTHERN  COLLEGES 

in  the  country.  He  is  a  most  remarkable  character, 
and  his  life  is  a  benediction  to  Newberry  College 
and  other  colleges." 

President  Carl  G.  Doney  of  the  West  Virginia 
Wesleyan  College  located  at  Buckhannon,  gives  Dr . 
Pearsons  credit  for  saving  the  institution  of  which 
he  is  the  head.  His  words  are: 

"Dr.  Pearsons  has  made  two  gifts  to  this  College: 
one  of  $25,000.00  and  the  other  of  $10,000.00.  The 
first  gift  was  made  during  the  progress  of  'The 
Twentieth  Century  Thank-Offering  Movement'  and 
was  given  on  condition  that  this  college  should 
secure  an  additional  sum  two  or  three  times  as  great. 
The  second  gift  of  $10,000.00  was  made  after  our  main 
building  was  consumed  by  fire  February,  1905.  No 
one  can  adequately  estimate  the  far-reaching  good 
of  these  benefactions.  It  would  seem  that  Dr. 
Pearsons  almost  literally  saved  this  college.  These 
gifts  have  encouraged  and  stimulated  the  friends  of  the 
institution  so  that  they  have  given  for  the  school  more 
than  they  would  otherwise  have  done.  This  college 
is  located  in  the  center  of  the  state  and  exclusively 
serves  a  great  constituency.  I  know  of  no  place  in 
all  Christendom  where  money  produces  such  large 
results  in  Christian,  scholarly  character  as  it  does 
here.  The  school  is  a  great  center  sending  out  strong 
men  and  women  to  all  parts  of  the  state  in  all  lines 
of  activity.  West  Virginia  would  be  impoverished 
without  the  college  and  the  college  would  have  been 
apparently  impossible  without  Dr.  Pearsons." 

President  John  H.  Race  of  the  University  of  Chat- 
tanooga, Tennessee,  writes  under  date  of  November 
10,  1910: 

187 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

"This  Institution,  which  is  a  successor  to  Grant 
University,  recognizes  in  Doctor  Daniel  K.  Pearsons 
'The  Father  of  Our  Endowment.'  His  conditional 
offer  of  $50,000.00  was  made  April  1st,  1906.  It  was 
given  with  the  understanding  that  $150,000.00  addi- 
tional should  be  secured  in  cash  or  bankable  notes 
toward  the  permanent  endowment  fund.  This  con- 
dition was  met.  Doctor  Pearsons  rendered  this 
institution  a  great  service  at  an  opportune  period  in 
its  history.  We  are  exceedingly  grateful  to  him  for 
his  interest  in  us." 

The  University  is  under  Methodist  control,  has 
prospered  greatly,  and  is  now  seeking  to  add  half  a 
million  dollars  to  its  endowment.  This  will  place  it 
on  its  feet.  The  fact  that  Dr.  Pearsons  in  1911  freed 
the  institution  from  its  obligation  to  pay  him  a 
small  annuity  on  a  portion  of  his  gifts  is  an  essential 
addition  to  its  income.  He  did  the  same  for  each 
one  of  the  eight  colleges  which  up  to  this  time  had 
been  sending  him  an  annuity  upon  the  gifts  received 
from  him.  Dr.  Race's  letter  expresses  his  personal 
feeling  for  the  relief  which  Chattanooga  University 
has  received. 

"MARCH  18,  1911. 
"Dear  Doctor  Pearsons: 

"  Thank  you  very  much,  indeed,  for  your  kind  letter 
that  has  just  reached  me.  It  is  certainly  most  gra- 
cious of  you  to  make  the  rebate  on  the  annuity  pledge. 
I  rejoice  with  you  in  being  able  to  pay  all  your  pledges. 
What  a  fine  service  you  have  rendered  this  college! 

"If  I  can  'round  up'  the  present  campaign  for 
one-half  million  dollars  we  shall  then  begin  to  be  on 
a  sure  foundation.  It  is  a  terrific  strain.  It  simply 
must  be  done,  though. 

188 


OTHER  SOUTHERN  COLLEGES 

"If  it  is  at  all  within  the  possible  I  want  to  greet 
you  personally  on  your  ninety-first  birthday.  May 
heaven's  richest  blessings  be  yours. 

With  high  personal  esteem,  believe  me, 
Faithfully  yours, 

(signed)  JOHN  H.  RACE." 

To  Dr.  Daniel  K.  Pearsons,  Hinsdale,  111. 

Washington  and  Tusculum  College,  the  oldest 
college  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  was  founded  by  the 
Presbyterians  in  1794.  It  is  located  at  Greenville, 
East  Tennessee,  and  has  made  for  itself  an  enviable 
record.  It  has  sent  one  hundred  and  fifty-five  men 
into  the  ministry  and  fourteen  into  the  foreign  field; 
it  has  graduated  seventy-nine  lawyers  and  three 
governors;  it  has  the  names  of  seventeen  judges, 
twenty-eight  members  of  Congress  and  twenty-two 
college  Presidents  on  its  roll  of  honor;  fifty-three 
physicans  have  been  trained  within  its  walls,  thirteen 
editors,  three  railroads  presidents  and  three  civil 
engineers ;  it  has  one  Admiral  of  the  United  States 
Navy  to  its  credit,  a  chaplain  in  Congress  and  two 
hundred  and  fifty-nine  teachers.  It  has  done  its 
work  on  almost  no  endowment,  in  a  few  buildings, 
with  a  small  faculty  and  with  charges  for  tuition 
even  now  which  seem  ridiculously  low.  Expenses 
for  the  year  are  reported  today  at  a  minimum  of  $100 
a  year  and  a  maximum  of  $140.  Its  holdings  are  ten 
college  buildings,  six  dwelling-houses,  a  farm  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty  acres  and  an  endowment  of  only 
$100,000.00.  No  wonder  that  its  history  and  need 
appealed  strongly  to  a  man  like  Dr.  Pearsons  who 

189 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

never  fails  to  appreciate  good  work  and  large  oppor- 
tunities. 

Under  date  of  November  10,  1910,  President  C.  O. 
Gray  writes: 

"Three  years  ago  Dr.  Pearsons  offered  to  give 
$25,000.00  on  endowment,  on  condition  that  $100,- 
000.00  be  raised.  The  amount  was  raised,  and  now 
totals  a  little  over  $101,000.00.  Dr.  Pearsons 
very  kindly  and  generously  sent  us  his  check  for 
$25,000.00. 

"This  was  the  first  endowment  money  our  college 
had  ever  had,  and  it  had  a  most  stimulating  and 
healthful  effect.  Nothing  in  the  history  of  the  insti- 
tution has  done  it  more  good.  I  find  it  much  easier 
to  raise  money  for  the  college  now,  because  of  this 
endowment,  and  I  anticipate  that  we  can  raise  $200- 
000.00  more  endowment  next  year  (as  we  contem- 
plate doing)  much  more  easily  because  of  this  first 
amount  secured. 

"We  are  under  lasting  gratitude  to  Dr.  Pearsons. 
He  was  the  originator  of  it  all.  God  bless  him." 

Guilford  College,  located  at  Guilford,  N.  C.,  is  a 
prosperous  institution  cared  for  by  the  Friends  or 
Quakers.  Its  student  body  has  always  been  of  the 
finest  material.  For  special  reasons  Dr.  Pearsons 
has  taken  a  deep  interest  in  its  welfare.  That  inter- 
est found  expression  in  a  generous  gift  of  money. 
The  President  of  the  college,  L.  L.  Hobbs,  writes : 

"JANUARY  7,   1911. 

"Dr.  Pearsons'  gift  of  $25,000.00  was  made  in  1905. 
It  was  conditioned  upon  our  raising  $75,000.00, 
which  we  did.  The  effect  was  to  increase  our  endow- 

190 


OTHER  SOUTHERN  COLLEGES 

ment  at  a  very  needful  time.  The  gift  is  in  memory 
of  Dr.  Oliver  Woodson  Nixon,  who  was  born  in 
Guilford  County,  North  Carolina.  I  have  no  doubt 
Dr.  Pearsons'  donation  stimulated  other  friends  of 
Guilford  and  we  regard  his  contribution  as  most 
helpful  and  a  great  favor  to  Guilford  College." 

Piedmont  College,  Demorest,  Georgia,  is  one  of  the 
youngest  colleges  of  the  state.  It  was  established 
and  aided  from  the  first  by  the  American  Missionary 
Association  (Congregational)  with  headquarters  in 
New  York.  The  college  now  has  an  endowment  of 
$100,000.00,  a  few  serviceable  buildings  and  a  reason- 
able hope  of  being  able  very  soon  to  care  for  itself. 
Dr.  Pearsons  offered  to  give  $25,000.00  toward  an 
endowment  as  soon  as  its  friends  would  add  $75,- 
000.00  to  this  sum.  After  a  somewhat  protracted 
and  very  strenuous  campaign  the  conditions  were  met 
and  in  October  a  check  was  sent  for  the  amount 
promised. 

Rev.  Henry  C.  Newell,  Vice -President  and  Dean 
of  the  College,  writes: 

"Concerning  our  sense  of  the  value  of  his  gift,  it 
may  be  fair  to  say  that  it  was  worth  to  us  much 
more  than  the  mere  money  value,  because  of  the  fact 
that  in  raising  the  amount  which  was  required  to 
secure  Dr.  Pearsons'  gift,  the  College  was  necessarily 
brought  before  the  public  to  an  extent  which  perhaps 
might  not  otherwise  have  been  the  case  in  so  short  a 
time,  and  there  can  be  no  question  but  that  the  con- 
ditions imposed  were  a  stimulus  to  giving  on  the 
part  of  other  people  and  to  energetic  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  College  authorities." 

191 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

Kingfisher  College,  Kingfisher,  Oklahoma,  the 
only  Congregational  College  in  the  State,  is  in  the 
center  of  a  fine  agricultural  region  and  is  easily 
accessible  to  a  very  large  population.  Toward  the 
nearly,  or  quite  $200,000.00  endowment  of  the  col- 
lege, Dr.  Pearsons  has  given  $50,000.00,  $25,000.00 
in  January,  1905,  and  $25,000.00  in  July,  1907.  Each 
gift  was  on  the  condition  that  it  be  supplemented  by 
a  gift  of  $75,000.00.  The  early  years  of  the  college 
under  the  Presidency  of  Rev.  J.  T.  House,  were  years 
of  struggle  and  self-sacrifice.  But  the  eagerness  of 
the  students  and  the  appreciation  of  the  work  which 
the  President  and  Faculty  with  such  inadequate 
means  at  command  were  doing  was  sufficient  reward. 

The  outlook  was  so  promising  and  success  already 
gained  so  great  that  Mr.  House  found  the  effort  to 
secure  something  like  an  adequate  endowment  less 
difficult  than  might  have  been  anticipated.  It  was 
the  confidence  that  people  had  in  Dr.  Pearsons  which 
led  scores  and  hundreds  of  people  in  all  sections  of  the 
country,  and  especially  in  the  East,  to  respond 
favorably  to  the  appeals  of  this  new  college.  Nor 
was  Dr.  Pearsons  mistaken  in  his  estimate  of  the 
need  of  Oklahoma,  of  just  such  an  institution  as  King- 
fisher was  designed  to  be.  Rev.  Calvin  B.  Moody, 
now  President,  is  doing  everything  in  his  power  to 
realize  the  ideals  of  its  founders,  and  with  the  aid  so 
freely  extended  to  him  from  many  directions,  there 
is  no  reason  why  this  college  should  not  be  the  larg- 
est and  most  important  in  the  state.  Its  influence  is 
felt  far  to  the  South,  and  the  fact  that  some  of  its 

192 


MRS.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 


OTHER  SOUTHERN  COLLEGES 

graduates  have  been  chosen  after  severe  examination 
to  represent  the  state  among  the  Rhodes  Scholars 
in  Oxford,  is  proof,  if  any  were  needed,  of  the  high 
grade  of  work  its  faculty  has  sought  to  do. 

Rollins  College,  Winter  Park,  Florida,  in  spite  of 
its  youth,  has  made  excellent  progress  and  is  now 
one  of  the  strongest  institutions  of  the  state.  Under 
date  of  April  1,  1911,  President  Blackman  writes: 

"Dr.  Pearsons  made  two  prolonged  visits  at  Rollins 
College,  the  first  during  the  winter  of  1902-03,  when 
he  was  accompanied  by  his  wife,  and  the  second 
during  the  winter  of  1906-07.  Mrs.  Pearsons,  alas, 
was  no  longer  with  him  on  the  occasion  of  this  second 
visit,  when  he  spent  four  months  in  my  home,  his 
reverence  for  her  memory,  the  tenderness  and  grati- 
tude with  which  he  always  spoke  of  her,  and  the  fine 
courage  with  which  he  bore  his  grief  and  loneliness, 
being  very  touching. 

"Rollins  College  was  founded  in  1885.  When  Dr. 
Pearsons  first  visited  it,  the  college  was  recovering 
from  the  effects  of  the  Great  Freeze,  which  had  pros- 
trated and  bewildered  the  whole  state.  It  had  no 
endowment  whatever;  it  was  struggling  under  a  very 
heavy  debt;  and  its  buildings  and  equipment  were 
inadequate.  A  new  President  had  recently  under- 
taken the  management  of  its  affairs,  and  was  not  yet 
inaugurated.  Dr.  Pearsons  devoted  several  weeks 
of  study  to  the  college  and  its  field;  visiting  class- 
rooms, interviewing  trustees,  instructors,  pupils, 
janitors,  the  cook,  the  people  of  the  village;  appearing 
unannounced  in  the  dining-hall  and  the  kitchen; 
asking  questions,  scrutinizing  conditions,  criticizing 
this  and  approving  that;  and  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees  held  in  February,  in  a  note  charac- 
13  193 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

teristically  direct  and  laconic,  he  agreed  to  give  the 
institution  the  sum  of  $50,000.00,  on  condition  that 
the  further  sum  of  $150,000.00  be  raised  within  a  year, 
the  whole  amount  to  constitute  an  endowment  fund, 
no  part  of  which  should  ever  be  expended.  The  con- 
ditions which  this  offer  imposed  seemed  to  the  trus- 
tees and  friends  of  the  college  almost  impossible  of 
fulfillment.  The  proposal,  however,  was  accepted, 
and  on  April  5th,  at  my  inauguration  as  President, 
Dr.  Pearsons  made  a  speech,  pungent,  humorous, 
and  enthusiastic,  in  which  he  suggested  that  on  his 
eighty-fourth  birthday,  April  14,  1904,  he  and  his 
hearers  should  meet  on  the  Rollins  campus  to  par- 
take of  a  plum-pudding  containing  $200,000.00. 

"Unhappily,  Dr.  Pearsons  was  unable  to  be  with  us, 
at  the  proposed  banquet,  but  the  plum-pudding  was 
there,  and  it  contained  a  considerable  sum  in  excess 
of  the  $200,000.00  which  it  had  been  proposed  to 
raise. 

"Dr.  Pearsons'  gift  and  the  threefold  greater  gift 
which  it  elicited,  placed  the  institution  on  a  solid 
footing.  For  the  first  time  in  its  history,  it  was  no 
longer  compelled  to  live  solely  'from  hand  to  mouth,' 
uncertain  whether  it  was  to  survive  permanently  or 
not.  The  Endowment  Fund  provided  an  income, 
not  sufficient  indeed  to  meet  the  yearly  expenses,  but 
enough  to  guarantee  the  future,  and  make  easier  the 
raising  of  the  remaining  necessary  amounts.  It  did 
more  than  this,  it  imparted  to  the  trustees  and  faculty 
of  the  college  a  sense  of  solidity,  of  dignity,  of  per- 
manency, of  strength,  and  of  self-respect,  which  had 
been  wanting  in  some  measure  heretofore;  it  gave  to 
it  a  recognized  position  among  the  institutions  of 
the  state  and  the  country;  and  it  made  possible  the 
further  financial  and  material  growth  which  has  fol- 
lowed. Other  friends,  moved  no  doubt  in  some  meas- 

194 


OTHER  SOUTHERN  COLLEGES 

ure  by  Dr.  Pearsons'  example,  came  to  its  aid — 
among  them  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie — so  that  now  its 
endowment  fund  has  increased  to  nearly  a  quarter 
of  a  million  dollars,  while  four  very  substantial  and 
beautiful  buildings,  and  other  valuable  and  costly 
equipment,  have  been  added  to  the  plant.  For  one 
use  or  another,  some  $420,000.00,  including  Dr. 
Pearsons'  contribution,  have  been  raised  for  the  col- 
lege since  his  offer  was  made  and  accepted. 

"It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  Dr.  Pearsons  is 
the  savior  of  the  institution. 

"I  recall  his  second  visit  at  Winter  Park  with  even 
greater  interest  than  the  first.  For  four  months  I 
knew  him  in  the  daily  intimacies  of  my  home,  and  his 
vivid  and  commanding  personality,  the  atmosphere 
of  power,  almost  genius,  which  enswathed  him,  the 
extraordinary  vivacity  of  his  mind,  his  unfailing 
optimism,  the  shrewd  opinions  on  all  sorts  of  subjects 
which  he  was  wont  to  express  in  the  raciest  of  Eng- 
lish, the  memories  of  a  long  and  eventful  life  which  he 
loved  to  recount,  his  sparkling  wit,  his  tall,  spare, 
unbent  form,  the  ancient  hat  which  adorned  his  head, 
indoors  and  out,  his  piercing  eye,  the  heavy  eyebrows, 
now  scowling,  now  arched,  which  were  as  expressive 
as  his  speech,  his  singular  personal  habits,  and,  above 
all,  the  tender  sympathy  which  underlay  his  abrupt 
and  sometimes  gruff  manner,  made  on  all  the  house- 
hold, old  and  young,  an  impression  which  can  never 
be  effaced. 

"I  shall  always  think  of  Dr.  Pearsons  as  a  veritable 
seer,  one  of  the  greatest  prophets  of  our  day;  and  I 
shall  love  him  and  cherish  his  memory  as  a  friend 
and  a  comrade." 


105 


XIV 

AID  FOR  COLLEGES  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST 


XIV 
AID  FOR  COLLEGES  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST 

THERE  were  many  reasons  for  the  interest 
which  Dr.  Pearsons  in  the  early  nineties 
manifested  in  Whitman  College,  Walla  Walla, 
Washington.  His  friend  Dr.  O.  W.  Nixon  of  the 
Inter-Ocean  had  spent  many  years  in  what  was 
then  the  territory  of  Oregon.  He  knew  the  pos- 
sibilities of  the  country  and  believed  in  its  rapid 
development.  He  was  familiar  with  the  efforts  of 
the  missionaries  to  establish  a  college  in  memory  of 
Marcus  Whitman,  who  had  been  murdered  by  the 
Indians,  whom  he  had  sought  to  benefit.  He  was 
familiar  with  the  details  of  the  journey  which,  in  the 
depth  of  winter,  by  a  route  rarely  traveled,  that 
heroic  missionary  made  to  Washington,  D.  C.,  in 
order  to  save  by  testimony  he  could  give,  the  vast 
territory  of  the  far  Northwest  to  the  country. 
When  the  life  of  Whitman,  written  by  Dr.|Nixon, 
was  put  into  Dr.  Pearsons'  hands,  he  read  it  with 
unflagging  interest  and  rose  from  its  perusal  with  the 
determination  to  do  everything  in  his  power  to  secure 
a  worthy  memorial  to  the  self-sacrificing  missionary. 
If  Dr,  Pearsons  should  have  the  credit  of  refound- 

199 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

ing  and  developing  Whitman  College,  the  part  which 
Dr.  Nixon  had  in  it  must  not  be  overlooked.  It  was 
through  him  that  the  labors  of  Miss  Virginia  Dox,  a 
very  gifted  young  woman,  were  secured  to  present 
its  interests  wherever  in  New  England  she  could 
obtain  a  hearing.  The  amount  of  money  which 
through  her  came  into  the  treasury  of  the  college  was 
in  the  aggregate  quite  large,  sufficient  in  fact  to  enable 
the  college  to  carry  on  its  work  until  an  endowment 
placed  it  upon  a  solid  financial  foundation.  But  there 
were  years  of  waiting.  The  college  was  far  away  from 
those  centers  of  civilization  in  which  givers  to  educa- 
tional institutions  reside.  It  was  difficult  to  make 
them  feel  the  need  of  a  college  in  a  territory  so  thinly 
populated.  The  gifts  of  Dr.  Pearsons,  the  publica- 
tion of  the  Life  of  Marcus  Whitman  by  Dr.  Nixon, 
the  labors  of  Miss  Dox  and  Rev.  Mr.  Maile  of  the 
Education  Society,  gradually  drew  the  attention  of 
benevolently  inclined  persons  to  the  college  and  led 
them  to  listen  favorably  to  appeals  on  its  behalf. 
The  fact  that  Dr.  Pearsons  had  expressed  his  confi- 
dence in  it  by  large  gifts  awakened  confidence  in 
others  and  rendered  the  campaigns  in  its  interest  suc- 
cessful. These  campaigns  were  planned  and  largely 
directed  by  Dr.  Nixon.  But  the  story  of  the 
reestablishment  of  the  College  is  best  told  by  its 
enthusiastic  President,  Rev.  S.  B.  L.  Penrose,  whose 
life  has  been  devoted  to  its  interests. 


200 


AID  FOR  COLLEGES 

"THE    GIFTS    OF    DR.    PEARSONS     TO 
WHITMAN  COLLEGE 

"When  I  became  President  of  Whitman  College  in 
1894, 1  found  the  institution  at  death's  door.  It  had 
a  debt  of  $12,500.00,  no  endowment,  and  three 
wooden  buildings  on  a  campus  of  six  acres  and  a 
half.  Attendance  had  run  down  so  low  that  at 
the  opening  of  the  fall  term  only  thirty-four  students 
altogether  appeared.  A  little  group  of  faithful 
teachers  was  all  that  remained  to  keep  the  institution 
alive.  In  these  distressing  conditions  the  one  ray  of 
light  was  an  unexpected  offer  which  had  been  made 
the  previous  March  by  Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons,  who,  with- 
out solicitation  on  the  part  of  the  college,  had  volun- 
tarily written,  offering  $50,000.00  on  condition  that 
$150,000.00  would  be  raised  for  the  endowment  of 
the  institution.  At  the  time,  this  had  come  like 
lightning  out  of  a  clear  sky,  but  nothing  had  been 
done  even  to  acknowledge  the  offer  or  any  steps  taken 
to  meet  the  conditions  of  the  gift.  The  first  work 
of  my  Presidency  was  to  take  active  steps  to  meet 
Dr.  Pearsons'  conditions,  and  I  may  say  that  the 
work  of  doing  this,  though  carried  on  with  great 
difficulty  during  the  darkest  financial  period  of  our 
country's  history,  from  1894  to  1896,  was  of  incal- 
culable benefit  to  the  college,  entirely  apart  from  the 
value  of  the  money  itself,  which  was  at  last  secured. 
Our  first  effort  was  to  arouse  local  people  to  support- 
ing Whitman  College,  for  we  felt  that  it  was  unrea- 
sonable to  ask  people  elsewhere  to  give,  unless  at 
least  one-third  of  the  whole  amount  was  raised  locally. 
We  secured  over  $50,000.00  in  local  subscriptions 
before  we  extended  the  campaign  to  the  East.  Dur- 
ing the  next  two  years,  through  the  indefatigable  and 
brilliant  labors  of  Miss  Virginia  Dox  and  Rev.  John  L. 

201 


LIFE   OF  DR.  D.  K  PEARSONS 

Maile,  and  the  invaluable  help  of  Dr.  O.  W.  Nixon, 
Editor  of  the  Chicago  Inter-Ocean,  we  formed  an 
army  of  friends  of  the  College  scattered  all  over  the 
country,  whose  gifts  from  small  to  large  put  the  Col- 
lege upon  a  firm  financial  foundation  and  guaranteed 
its  permanency.  I  consider  these  two  benefits  to  be 
inseparable  from  Dr.  Pearsons'  method  of  conditional 
giving,  namely,  the  development  of  local  support 
and  the  development  of  a  large  number  of  outside 
friends  and  benefactors. 

"But  before  we  had  succeeded  in  meeting  his  condi- 
tions Dr.  Pearsons  had  given  a  characteristic  illustra- 
tion .of  his  generosity  to  the  College.  When  I  went 
East  for  the  first  time  in  the  fall  of  1894  and  stopped  in 
Chicago  to  see  the  great  Dr.  Pearsons,  my  mind  was 
heavy  with  the  burden  of  the  $12,500.00  of  indebted- 
ness which  was  crushing  the  college,  drawing  interest 
at  ten  per  cent.  When  I  told  him  that  I  hoped  to 
find  some  person  in  the  East  who  would  lend  me  the 
money  at  six  per  cent  in  order  that  we  might  save 
the  excessive  rate  of  interest,  the  Doctor  at  once 
retorted  with  what  seemed  to  me  shocking  brusque- 
ness,  'You  can't  do  it.  Nobody  would  lend  the 
money  on  such  terms.'  Then,  after  a  few  moments, 
when  I  had  expressed  my  sense  of  the  grave  need  and 
my  determination  to  try  and  secure  the  loan,  he  sud- 
denly said:  Til  lend  you  the  money.  Sit  down  and 
make  me  out  a  note.'  I  sat  down  and  made  out  a 
note  for  $12,500.00  at  six  per  cent,  signing  it  with  my 
own  name  as  President  of  the  College.  I  took  the 
action  upon  my  personal  initiative  without  consulting 
the  Trustees,  and  years  afterward  found  to  my 
amusement  and  surprise  that  Dr.  Pearsons  had  con- 
sidered my  prompt  action  as  creditable  to  me  in 
being  willing  to  borrow  money  for  the  college  in  my 
own  name,  As.  I  considered  my  name  as  worth  noth- 

202 


AID  FOR  COLLEGES 

ing  from  the  financial  point  of  view,  I  viewed  the 
incident  as  wholly  complimentary  to  Dr.  Pearsons' 
generosity.  At  the  end  of  the  year  we  sent  him  a 
check  for  the  interest,  $750.00,  which  he  returned  to 
the  Treasurer  of  the  College,  and  on  my  marriage 
presented  the  unendorsed  note  to  Mrs.  Penrose  as  a 
wedding  present,  and  thus  wiped  out  the  indebted- 
ness. His  method  of  doing  this  generous  act  was 
characteristically  peculiar,  but  indicated  to  my  mind 
not  only  his  large-heartedness  but  also  his  modesty 
in  apparently  concealing  the  fact  that  he  had  given 
$13,250.00  to  the  College  in  this  way. 

"His  other  gifts  to  the  College  have  indicated  his 
close  watch  over  college  development  and  his  readi- 
ness to  respond  to  its  need.  In  1899  he  gave  $50,- 
000.00  for  a  Whitman  Memorial  Building  in  honor 
of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Whitman,  and  this  was  the  first 
permanent  building  which  the  college  possessed,  the 
beginning  of  the  new  Whitman.  In  1902  he  again 
inaugurated  a  new  era  in  the  college  development  by 
giving  $50,000.00  for  endowment,  upon  condition  that 
we  secure  funds  for  a  girls'  dormitory,  which  was 
done.  Again  in  1909  he  gave  $50,000.00  for  the  en- 
dowment of  Pearsons  Academy,  the  preparatory 
department  of  the  institution  which  with  his  consent 
we  had  named  for  him.  This  was  the  only  gift  he 
made  without  conditions,  a  departure  from  his  usual 
wise  custom,  and  as  I  took  it  an  indication  of  his 
confidence  in  the  way  in  which  the  college  was  devel- 
oping and  the  friendships  which  it  had  already 
formed. 

"After  sixteen  years  of  close  association  with  Dr. 
Pearsons  I  have  formed  not  only  a  deep  affection  and 
admiration  for  him  personally,  but  a  thorough  belief 
in  the  statesmanlike  character  of  his  plan  of  giving. 
It  would  undoubtedly  have  been  easier  for  us  in  our 

203 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

dark  days  to  have  received  $50,000.00  given  without 
conditions,  but  it  would  not  have  meant  one-tenth 
of  what  it  ultimately  did  mean  to  the  College.  We 
were  obliged  to  struggle  heroically  for  existence,  to 
appeal  to  our  local  constituency  and  to  develop 
friends  throughout  the  United  States.  An  ever- 
increasing  stream  of  benevolence  and  bequests  has 
been  flowing  to  Whitman  College  as  a  result  of  that 
initial  campaign.  This  canny  shrewdness  on  Dr. 
Pearsons'  part  has  meant,  therefore,  vastly  more 
than  his  own  gifts,  large  as  they  have  been.  He  has 
given  to  Whitman  College  in  all  $213,250.00,  for  which 
the  College  will  be  ever  grateful.  In  addition  to  this 
amount  his  friendship  has  meant  much  to  the  college 
as  an  expression  of  his  confidence  in  its  development. 
Many  people  have  given  because  the  institution  had, 
to  this  degree,  his  commendation.  He  had  selected 
it  as  being  located  at  a  strategic  point  and  being 
destined,  by  history  and  tradition,  to  reach  a  great 
future.  He  spoke  of  it  on  many  occasions  with  affec- 
tion and  assurance.  When,  at  our  Educational 
Congress  in  1908,  a  great  dinner  was  given  in  his 
honor,  the  cheering  hundreds  of  banqueters  who  arose 
to  their  feet  and  waved  their  napkins  as  he  stood  up 
to  speak  indicated  but  faintly  the  deep  sense  of  grati- 
tude and  admiration  which  filled  their  hearts.  Whit- 
man College  would,  in  all  probability,  be  now  merely 
a  name  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  far-seeing  eye  and 
the  generously  helpful  hand  of  Dr.  Daniel  Kimball 
Pearsons." 

When  on  January  1,  1902,  President  Penrose 
received  a  check  for  fifty  thousand  dollars  on  the 
successful  termination  of  an  effort  to  raise  an  endow- 
ment of  $200,000.00  in  his  own  name  and  that  of 
many  others  he  telegraphed  Dr.  Pearsons  .... 

204 


AID  FOR  COLLEGES 

"We  are  deeply  grateful  to  you.  This  whole  region 
blesses  your  name.  Trustees,  faculty  and  students 
unite  in  one  song  of  thankgiving." 

From  time  to  time  other  large  gifts  were  made,  and 
an  administration  building  erected.  Dr.  Pearsons 
was  present  at  Commencement  in  1908  to  see  what 
his  money  had  accomplished  and  to  receive  the  wel- 
come which  awaited  him  from  the  officers  and  instruc- 
tors in  the  college,  the  citizens  of  Walla  Walla  and 
from  distinguished  men  from  every  part  of  the  new 
Northwest.  It  was  at  that  time  that  endorsement 
was  given  to  a  campaign  to  secure  means  to  enable 
the  college  to  furnish  the  practical  and  technical 
education  the  country  needs  in  addition  to  that  fur- 
nished in  a  regular  college  course.  That  there  will  be 
a  new  Whitman  resting  on  the  foundations  already 
laid,  can  no  more  be  doubted  than  that  a  present 
Whitman  exists. 

PACIFIC  UNIVERSITY 

The  history  of  Pacific  University,  Forest  Grove, 
Oregon,  quiet  and  unpretentious  as  its  life  has  been, 
reads  like  a  romance.  It  is  the  story  of  the  service 
and  self-sacrifice  of  heroic  men  and  women.  A  little 
more  than  sixty-three  years  ago  its  foundations  were 
laid  in  faith,  when  there  were  few  people  residing 
in  Oregon,  when  there  was  no  money  in  sight  for  its 
support,  when  the  journey  thither  from  Boston  was 
via  Cape  Horn  and  the  Sandwich  Islands. 

Mrs.  Tabitha  Moffet  Brown,  daughter  of  a  minis- 
ter in  Brimfield,  Massachusetts,  when  nearly  seventy, 

205 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

coining  to  the  new  region  in  1847  with  the  family  of 
her  son,  sought  and  found  occupation  for  herself  in 
providing  a  school  for  orphan  children,  and  built  a 
log  house  for  them  on  a  site  in  what  is  now  Forest 
Grove.  This  school  afterwards  became  the  Tualtin 
Academy  or  the  Preparatory  Department  of  the  later 
college.  Her  efforts  attracted  the  attention,  awak- 
ened the  sympathy  and  secu'red  the  aid  of  Harvey 
Clark  who  went  from  Vermont  to  Oregon,  as  an  inde- 
pendent missionary  to  the  Indians,  who  purchased 
land  now  the  site  of  Forest  Grove  and  gave  two  hun- 
dred acres  of  it  toward  an  endowment  for  the  college, 
with  other  land  for  scholarships.  In  1848  Rev. 
George  H.  Atkinson  began  his  work  as  home  mission- 
ary on  the  Pacific  Coast  and  entered  heartily  into 
the  plans  for  the  founding  of  the  new  college.  More 
than  once  he  visited  the  East,  and  never  in  vain,  on 
its  behalf.  From  the  Education  Society  he  secured 
a  grant  of  $600  a  year  toward  its  support.  Sidney 
Harper  Marsh,  at  28  years  of  age,  amid  much  dis- 
couragement, but  with  a  brave  heart,  at  this  early 
period  began  his  labor  for  the  college.  For  25  years 
he  was  its  devoted  president.  He  was  the  grandson 
of  Eleazer  Wheelock,  founder  of  Dartmouth  College, 
and  son  of  James  Marsh,  President  of  the  University 
of  Vermont,  where  he,  himself  graduated.  To  his 
aid  in  later  years  came  Rev.  Cushing  Eells,  founder 
of  Whitman  College,  and  his  brother,  the  honored 
and  dearly  loved  Professor  Marsh.  It  is  fitting  that 
the  noblest  building  on  the  campus  should  be  named 
Marsh  Memorial  Hall. 


AID  FOR  COLLEGES 

The  college  has  been  fortunate  in  its  presidents, 
no  one  of  whom  has  held  the  office  from  any  other 
motive  than  that  of  service.  It  is  fortunate  now  in 
the  man  at  its  head,  Dr.  W.  F.  Ferrin,  for  twenty 
years  its  professor  of  mathematics,  as  it  was  fortunate 
in  his  predecessor,  Dr.  Thomas  McClelland,  now 
President  of  Knox  College,  Galesburg,  Illinois.  It 
was  during  his  administration  that  Marsh  Hall  was 
erected  and  $150,000.00  added  to  its  endowment. 
At  his  suggestion  and  under  his  direction  more  than 
five  hundred  persons,  members  of  the  National  Con- 
gregational Council  held  in  Portland,  spent  part  of 
July  9,  1898,  at  Forest  Grove  as  guests  of  the  college 
and  participants  in  services  connected  with  its  fiftieth 
anniversary.  More  than  one  thousand  persons  sat 
down  together  at  the  tables,  spread  under  the  oaks 
and  firs  of  the  beautiful  village,  and  were  bountifully 
fed  by  gracious  ladies  to  whose  hospitality  there  were 
apparently  no  bounds. 

It  was  at  this  gathering  that  President  McClelland 
held  up  a  check  from  Dr.  Pearsons  for  $35,000.00 
the  final  payment  of  his  pledge  of  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars toward  the  endowment  at  that  time  completed. 
An  interesting  feature  of  the  day  was  the  report  of 
the  growth  of  several  small  gifts  made  in  early  days 
of  the  college,  which  had  been  carefully  invested  and 
reinvested  till  in  a  comparatively  short  time  each  of 
them  will  furnish  support  for  a  professor.  What  can 
be  said  of  few  colleges  can  be  said  of  Pacific  Univer- 
sity. None  of  its  investments  have  been  lost,  and 
not  a  dollar  has  been  taken  from  endowment  funds 

207 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

to  meet  current  expenses.  Nor  has  it  ever  run  into 
debt. 

If  its  work  has  been  quiet  it  has  been  of  the  highest 
order.  Its  graduates  have  filled  important  positions 
wherever  they  have  lived.  One  of  the  members  of  the 
first  class  it  graduated,  Mr.  Harvey  Scott,  one  of  its 
staunchest  friends,  was  the  founder  and  till  his  death 
editor  of  The  Oregonian,  one  of  the  ablest  journals 
published  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  Standards  of  scholar- 
ship have  been  those  of  eastern  colleges.  Growth 
has  been  slow,  but  steady  and  constant.  Christian 
character  has  been  formed,  high  ideals  cherished 
under  the  inspiration  of  which  hundreds  of  men  and 
women  who  have  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  the 
college  have  gone  out  to  their  work  in  the  world 
with  consciousness  of  power  which  has  done  not  a 
little  toward  securing  that  success  in  life  which  has 
come  to  nearly  all  of  them.  It  is  no  matter  for  sur- 
prise that  Dr.  Pearsons  should  have  pride  in  this 
small  Christian  college,  humble  though  it  has  been 
content  to  be,  though  ambitious  to  do  honest  work 
and  to  train  those  entrusting  themselves  to  its  care 
for  usefulness  in  their  generation.  With  such  a  record 
behind  it  no  one  can  doubt  that  it  will  have  a  great 
and  commanding  future. 

It  is  a  privilege  to  have  a  report  of  circumstances 
which  led  to  Dr.  Pearsons'  gift  and  of  the  service 
which  it  rendered.  Letters  which  follow  from  Presi- 
dent McClelland  will  be  of  interest. 

"For  the  $50,000.00  which  Dr.  Pearsons  gave  to 
Pacific  University  I  can  say  it  came  in  a  most  oppor- 

208 


AID  FOR  COLLEGES 

tune  time  for  the  college.  At  the  very  time  his  offer 
was  made,  February  28,  1894,  we  were  just  reaching 
the  worst  period  of  the  financial  crisis  from  which  the 
whole  country  was  then  suffering.  Its  depressing 
effects  were  especially  severe  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 
In  the  case  of  the  institution  our  income  from 
invested  funds  was  very  largely  cut  off  because 
of  the  inability  of  people  to  pay  the  interest  due 
us  from  loans  or  the  rents  from  a  number  of  build- 
ings which  we  owned  in  Portland.  Just  before 
this  crisis  I  had  secured  subscriptions  for  a  new  and 
much  needed  college  building,  amounting  to 
$17,000.00.  In  addition  to  this  we  had  $8,000.00 
in  the  bank  which  had  been  secured  for  this 
purpose.  We  needed  $15,000.00  more  to  pay 
for  this  building  according  to  the  plans  and 
estimates  secured.  Under  the  financial  conditions 
it  was  impossible  to  go  further  in  the  way  of 
securing  subscriptions  and  the  danger  was  that  we 
should  lose  those  we  had  already  secured.  In  this 
emergency  I  wrote  Dr.  Pearsons  fully,  telling  him  the 
exact  situation,  with  comparatively  little  hope  that 
he  would  respond  favorably.  To  my  surprise  and 
extreme  gratification  I  received  from  him  a  letter, 
a  copy  of  which  I  am  enclosing.  I  had  only  asked 
him  for  the  $15,000.00  to  complete  the  building,  but 
in  response  to  this  he  made  me  the  larger  offer  indi- 
cated in  his  letter.  This  offer  put  new  heart  into  the 
management  and  friends  of  the  institution,  and  al- 
though the  effort  to  secure  the  contingent  sum  of 
$100,000.00  was  difficult  and  slow  on  account  of  the 
14  209 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K  PEARSONS 

financial  stringency,  his  offer  of  $15,000.00  to  com- 
plete the  building  saved  that  project  and  enabled  us 
to  begin  preparations  for  the  construction  of  the  build- 
ing immediately.  The  securing  of  subscriptions  to 
complete  the  $100,000.00  was  pushed  as  rapidly  as 
the  financial  conditions  of  the  country  would  admit, 
and  we  were  finally  successful,  although  the  effort  cost 
four  years  of  hard  and  oftentimes  discouraging  work. 
The  National  Council  which  met  in  Portland  in  July 
of  1898  adjourned  one  afternoon,  as  planned  for  on 
the  program,  and  went  out  to  Forest  Grove  to  join  us 
in  celebrating  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  founding 
of  the  institution.  It  was  a  great  satisfaction  to  me 
to  be  able  to  exhibit  from  the  platform  a  check  for 
$35,000.00  which  Dr.  Pearsons  had  sent  me  just  pre- 
viously to  complete  his  gift  of  $50,000.00. 

"I  think  it  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  this  timely 
offer  of  Dr.  Pearsons  to  give  to  Pacific  University 
$50,000.00  on  condition  that  we  should  raise  an  addi- 
tional $100,000.00  saved  the  institution  and  put  it  on 
a  permanent  basis  for  continuing  with  greater  success 
the  splendid  work  it  had  been  doing  for  Oregon  and 
the  North  Pacific  Coast  for  the  previous  fifty  years." 

"  LITHIA  SPRINGS,  GA.,  Feb.  28, 1894. 
"PREST.  MCCLELLAND: 

"My  rule  is  to  give  $50,000.00  to  a  college  if  the 
friends  of  the  college  will  give  $150,000.00.  Now 
I  shall  make  this  offer  to  you:  If  you  will  get  the 
friends  of  Pacific  University  to  give  $100,000.00  I 
will  give  you  $50,000.00,  and  I  will  give  you  one  year 
to  collect  the  $100,000.00:  or  it  would  be  better  to 

210 


AID  FOR  COLLEGES 

make  the  time  shorter,  and  I  will  say,  as  soon  as  you 
get  yours,  I  will  give  mine. 

Truly>        D.  K  PEARSONS." 

(The  following  was  added  as  a  sort  of  postscript.) 

"PRIVATE 

No.  2. 

"  You  say  that  you  have  $17,000.00  and  $8,000.00 
—$25,000.00.  Now  you  go  on  and  build  the  building 
and  I  will  send  you  the  $15,000.00  to  complete  the 
building.  As  you  say  that  the  $17,000.00  was  given 
recently  by  your  friends,  we  will  call  that  $17,000.00 
a  part  of  the  $100,000.00  I  ask  you  to  get,  so  that 
you  will  have  to  get  $84,000.00  fresh  money. 

"I  will  send  you  three  checks  of  $5,000.00  each, 
say  one  in  June,  one  in  July  and  one  in  August,  or 
sooner,  if  you  like:  but  recollect  my  money  is  to  do 
the  last  work  on  the  building." 

At  the  anniversary  gathering  President  McClelland 
read  a  letter  received  only  two  days  before  from  Dr. 
Pearsons. 

"President  McClelland:  I  enclose  check  for  $35,- 
000.00.  I  want  you  to  hold  this  check  till  the  llth  of 
July  and  then  give  it  to  your  Treasurer.  The  $50,- 
000.00  I  have  now  given  you  belongs  to  the  Vermont 
contingency.  Atkinson  was  a  schoolmate  of  mine 
and  Marsh  was  an  old  friend.  Please  give  me  a  full 
account  of  your  endowment,  so  that  I  can  file  it 
away  with  others.  I  am  pleased  with  your  work 
and  hope  that  you  will  keep  the  endowment  sacred. 
You  have  worked  hard  to  get  it,  and  I  hope  it  will 
go  into  perpetuity  and  do  good  to  the  coming 
generations.  Truly, 

D.  K.  PEARSONS." 

211 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

The  following  resolution  prepared  by  Dr.  W.  E. 
Barton  representing  the  Education  Society  was  read 
by  him  at  this  visit  of  the  Council  and  was  promptly 
and  heartily  adopted. 

"Resolved,  That  the  delegates  and  attendants 
of  the  National  Council,  gathered  at  Forest  Grove 
on  this  day  when  the  receipt  of  a  check  from  Dr.  D.  K. 
Pearsons  completes  the  $150,000.00  endowment  of 
Pacific  Unversity,  desire  to  express  our  gratification 
and  that  of  the  churches  and  schools  which  we  repre- 
sent, in  the  success  of  this  protracted  and  heroic 
effort,  and  our  thanks  to  Dr.  Pearsons  for  this  worthy 
and  generous  gift;  and  we  rejoice  with  him  in  the 
rare  privilege  which  he  is  enjoying  of  building  his 
own  large  effort  into  so  many  of  the  institutions 
which  are  to  rule  the  future." 

POMONA    COLLEGE,  CLAREMONT,   CALIFORNIA 

This  is  the  youngest  of  three  colleges  which  Dr. 
Pearsons  has  aided  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  Its  growth 
has  been  more  rapid  than  that  of  either  of  the  other 
two.  This  is  due  to  the  rapid  increase  of  population 
in  Southern  California,  and  to  the  character  of  that 
population.  Its  standards  of  education  are  of  the 
highly  educated  communities  of  the  East,  so  that  no 
institutions  of  lower  rank  than  those  to  which  they 
have  been  accustomed  will  satisfy  them.  It  is  to 
the  credit  of  a  college  not  yet  a  quarter  of  a  century 
old  that  it  to  so  great  a  degree  has  won  their  confi- 
dence. This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  its  professors 
have  been  thoroughly  educated  men  and  women, 
and  have  been  willing  and  happy  to  render  a  service 

212 


AID  FOR  COLLEGES 

for  which  the  payment  has  been  very  largely  in  seeing 
what  could  be  done  for  young  people  who  but  for 
their  service  might  never  enjoy  the  advantages  of  a 
higher  education.  Its  Presidents  have  been  men 
of  rare  gifts.  President  Ferguson  was  a  business 
man  of  unusual  ability  and  foresight.  He  was  skill- 
ful and  wise  in  the  selection  of  his  helpers.  It  was  to 
the  great  advantage  of  the  college  that  Dr.  George 
A.  Gates,  the  well-known  and  for  many  years  the 
successful  President  of  Iowa  College,  stood  at  its 
head  for  so  long  a  time.  For  Rev.  Dr.  James  A. 
Blaisdell,  recently  of  Beloit  College,  son  of  a  college 
professor,  brought  up  in  a  college  atmosphere,  yet 
with  not  a  little  experience  outside  of  it,  who  is 
now  filling  the  President's  chair,  the  college  has  every 
reason  to  be  grateful.  In  the  short  time  he  has  been 
President,  he  has  won  hosts  of  friends  for  the  college 
and  developed  a  new  spirit  among  students,  faculty 
and  trustees.  The  growth  of  the  college,  as  the  state- 
ment of  Professor  Sumner,  which  follows,  indicates, 
can  be  hindered  only  by  lack  of  buildings  and  endow- 
ment. That  these  will  come,  and  before  very  long 
there  is  every  reason  for  believing.  In  aiding  this 
college  Dr.  Pearsons  feels  that  he  has  done  some  of 
his  best  work.  It  is  true  here,  as  in  so  many  other 
instances,  that  his  gifts  have  saved  the  college.  It  is 
the  wisdom  with  which  he  has  distributed  his  money, 
the  timeliness  of  its  gift,  its  frequent  repetition  that 
have  rendered  it  so  valuable  and  stimulating.  In 
the  prosperity  of  no  one  of  his  college  children  has  he 

213 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

more  reason  for  rejoicing  than  in  that  of  his  youngest 
child  on  the  Western  Coast. 

In  appreciation  of  what  Dr.  Pearsons  has  done  for 
Pomona,  President  Blaisdell  writes: 

"OCT.  19,  1910. 

"Though  a  new-comer  here,  it  has  been  impos- 
sible for  me  not  to  appreciate  the  fact  that  Dr. 
Pearsons'  gifts  have  been  of  the  most  vital  impor- 
tance to  the  life  of  the  institution.  They  have  fur- 
nished absolutely  indispensable  equipment  to  the 
institution  and  have  come  at  strategic  and  critical 
moments.  As  in  so  many  cases  among  the  colleges, 
these  gifts  also  have  been  significant  in  bringing 
other  gifts  and  thus  of  starting  tides  of  helpfulness 
which,  to  all  human  eyes,  could  not  have  come  with- 
out his  generosity.  In  my  judgment  Dr.  Pearsons' 
gifts  have  been  nothing  less  than  epoch  making  in  the 
history  of  American  education.  They  have  per- 
petuated and  amplified  the  ministry  of  the  small 
college  in  American  education.  Whatever  the  out- 
put of  these  colleges  shall  be  in  future  years,  it  will  be 
in  no  small  sense  the  result  of  the  life  work  and  serv- 
ices of  Dr.  Daniel  K.  Pearsons." 

The  following  statement  by  Professor  C.  B.  Sum- 
ner,  one  of  the  oldest  professors  in  the  college  and 
a  man  whose  life  has  been  devoted  to  its  interests, 
in  regard  to  Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons'  connection  with 
Pomona  College  is  testimony  of  the  first  order. 

"An  occasional  caller  at  Dr.  Pearsons'  office  could 
not  helping  getting  some  impression  of  the  interest 
he  took  in  the  institutions  he  had  helped.  Such  a  one, 
if  representing  some  college,  soon  learned  that  he  had 

214 


AID  FOR  COLLEGES 

sought  every  possible  contributary  source  of  informa- 
tion and  possibly  knew  more  in  some  directions  than 
the  representative.  It  did  not  take  long  to  realize, 
too,  how  searching  and  far  reaching  his  questions 
might  be.  A  representative  of  Pomona  well  remem- 
bers what  a  sensation  it  was  to  him  that  a  man  who 
had  never  been  to  Claremont  could  know  so  much 
about  the  college  and  the  country. 

"  It  was  Pomona's  tenth  year  before  Dr.  Pearsons 
gave  her  his  first  check.  In  the  first  years  of  the 
boom  in  Southern  California  he  had  been  to  Los 
Angeles  and  Pasadena,  and  most  likely  he  was  wait- 
ing to  be  convinced  that  the  college  was  not  mixed  up 
in  a  land  speculation.  He  must  first  be  convinced 
that  there  was  a  place  for  the  college,  an  actual  need 
of  it  before  he  was  willing  to  help  it.  Whoever  heard 
of  a  hasty  or  inconsiderate  gift  of  his  to  any  institu- 
tion! 

"Another  marked  characteristic  of  his  giving  was 
its  strategic  value.  Undoubtedly  his  whole  scheme 
of  giving  was  planned  with  reference  to  influencing 
other  large  givers,  and  each  particular  gift  was  in- 
tended to  call  out  other  gifts  to  the  same  object.  In 
spite  of  the  criticisms  of  his  conditional  gifts  there 
are  few  thoughtful  persons  who  will  not  admit  that 
very  often,  if  not  always,  they  have  been  productive 
of  a  two-fold  good,  one  to  the  object,  the  other  to 
givers. 

"But  Dr.  Pearsons'  strategy  went  still  farther.  In 
each  particular  case,  frequently  at  least,  there  was 
something  in  the  time  or  place  or  method  which 

215 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

indicates  a  thoughtful  reference  to  its  particular 
effectiveness.  This  will  appear  as  the  gifts  to 
Pomona  College  are  enumerated. 

"The  first  was  in  the  shape  of  a  $20,000.00  check  to 
help  on  a  State  canvass  for  $75,000.00,  which  was  nec- 
essary to  meet  a  conditional  proposition.  It  came  at 
a  time  and  in  a  way  greatly  to  enhance  its  value.  The 
check  was  exhibited  and  wonderfully  encouraged  and 
stimulated  the  friends  of  the  college  so  that  the  con- 
ditions were  speedily  met.  But  this  was  not  all.  It 
is  not  easy  to  overestimate  the  full  effect  of  the  added 
confidence  given  to  a  struggling  institution,  squarely 
meeting  the  conditions  of  a  large  proposition  in  its 
favor.  The  subjective  feeling  of  power  may  be  as  it 
was  in  the  above  case,  more  helpful  by  far  than  the 
object  obtained. 

"This  strategic  gift  was  soon  followed  by  one 
equally  timely,  viz.,  $25,000.00  for  a  Science  Hall. 
The  money  was  judiciously  spent  and  the  effect  was 
magical.  Up  to  that  time  only  the  crudest,  most 
cramped  and  most  inconvenient  facilities  for  scien- 
tific work  had  been  possible.  The  new  Science  Hall,  an 
elegant  classical  structure  of  white  pressed  brick  with 
partitions  of  steel  wire  and  alpine  plaster  and  all  the 
modern  departmental  conveniences,  lifted  the  college 
at  once  into  self  respect  and  made  it  appeal  to  a  wide 
class  of  students.  The  money  was  no  measure  of  the 
good  done. 

"Three  years  later  came  the  proposition  from  him 
to  give  $50,000.00  to  endowment,  provided  the  large 
accumulated  indebtedness  could  be  all  wiped  out. 

216 


AID  FOR  COLLEGES 

"This  indebtedness  had  not  been  bonded  but  was 
scattered  hither  and  thither.  A  note  calling  for 
payment,  now  from  this  direction,  now  from  that, 
kept  the  college  always  on  the  anxious  seat.  It  had 
become  an  incubus.  Dr.  Pearsons'  proposition  wak- 
ened the  utmost  enthusiasm  in  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
which  quickly  spread  to  the  Alumni  and  amongst 
the  churches.  The  speedy  success  of  the  campaign 
was  a  surprise  even  to  the  experienced  college  presi- 
dents who  were  on  the  ground. 

"There  followed  this  movement  a  period  of  growth 
wholly  unprecedented  even  in  the  phenomenal  his- 
tory of  Pomona.  The  very  rapidity  of  this  growth 
led  to  a  steadily  increasing  embarrassment  which 
it  was  difficult  for  Dr.  Pearsons  and  even  for  the 
Trustees  to  understand.  Prosperity  was  likely  to 
ruin  the  college.  The  college  is  passing  through  the 
same  experience  now,  just  after  having  added  $300,- 
000.00  to  its  assets.  The  pressure  was  never  greater 
than  it  is  today,  and  this  increasing  embarrassment 
must  inevitably  continue  until  the  college  has  what 
the  Carnegie  standard  proclaims  the  least  normal 
endowment — viz.,  one  million  dollars.  The  explana- 
tion is  found  in  part  in  the  college  constituency, 
although  the  great  change  in  college  standards  has 
something  to  do  with  it.  This  constituency  is  so 
largely  made  up  of  families  who  have  come  from 
Eastern  homes  in  the  vicinity  and  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  best  Eastern  educational  institutions  and 
such  a  proportion  are  graduates  that  only  the  best 
institutions  and  the  highest  standards  satisfy  them. 

217 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

California  high  schools  are  reputed  the  best  in  the 
country.  These  patrons  have  the  spirit  of  the  new 
country  and  are  willing  to  endure  crudities  only  for 
a  short  time,  as  a  makeshift.  Every  advance  of  the 
college  brings  in  a  larger  proportion  of  this  class  and 
their  demands  are  inexorable.  Then,  too,  the  com- 
petitive institutions,  especially  the  University  of 
California  and  Leland  Stanford  University  set  the 
pace  for  the  highest  standards.  Yielding  just  as 
gradually  as  possible  to  this  imperious  demand,  the 
crisis  came  about  three  years  ago  when  it  was  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  make  another  forward  movement. 
The  Trustees  were  led  to  feel  it  strongly  and  Mr. 
Andrew  Carnegie  was  induced  to  offer  $50,000.00 
towards  a  fund  of  $250,000.00  for  buildings  and 
endowment.  Dr.  Pearsons  was  in  Claremont  for  the 
winter  at  the  time,  saw  the  need  and  promptly  sub- 
scribed to  this  end  the  sum  of  $25,000.00.  After 
studying  the  situation  he  felt  very  strongly  the  neces- 
sity of  a  boys'  dormitory,  and  applied  his  subscription 
to  that  object.  The  urgency  of  the  need  grew  upon 
him  day  by  day  until  by  reason  of  his  insistent  pres- 
sure the  dormitory,  a  reinforced  concrete  building, 
fireproof,  for  the  accommodation  of  about  seventy 
students  was  ready  for  occupancy  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  next  fall  term.  Whether  the  money 
given,  Dr.  Pearsons'  hearty  interest  in  the  campaign, 
or  the  dormitory  in  actual  use  was  the  most  important 
factor  in  that  canvass  may  be  doubted.  Certain  it 
is  that  the  canvass  was  completed,  partly  under 
President  Gates  and  partly  under  President  Blaisdell, 

218 


AID  FOR  COLLEGES 

netting  the  College  not  only  $25,000.00  but  more  than 
$300,000.00. 

"This  large  sum  should  be  a  great  relief  to  a  strug- 
gling college;  but  as  intimated  above,  it  leaves  the 
college  still  embarrassed.  The  truth  is  the  officers 
of  the  college  realized  at  the  outset  that  the  actual 
need  was  twice  the  amount  secured,  but  they  were 
obliged  to  content  themselves  for  a  time  with  the 
smaller  sum,  looking  to  the  future  for  another  for- 
ward movement. 

"When  Dr.  Pearsons  took  up  Pomona  College  it  was 
very  weak,  having  hardly  a  hundred  college  students, 
and  less  than  $100,000.00  endowment,  with  only  two 
buildings  and  a  small  campus.  The  college  constit- 
uency was  poor,  mostly  in  debt  and  small  at  best.  A 
strong  friend  was  indispensable  to  give  it  a  start  and 
tide  it  over  till  Southern  California  should  in  some 
measure  come  to  its  own.  Dr.  Pearsons'  careful 
fostering  up  to  the  present  time  has  been  invaluable. 
One  cannot  see  how  existence  would  have  been  pos- 
sible without  it.  While  his  gifts  have  not  been  so 
large  as  to  some  other  institutions,  they  have  been 
timely  and  inspiring.  Not  yet  is  the  college  on  a 
permanent  self-sustaining  basis,  and  as  intimated, 
the  present  demand  is  more  urgent  than  at  any  past 
time.  Still  there  has  been  great  advancement. 
Students  in  the  college  department  number  three 
hundred  and  twenty-six;  the  productive  endowment 
funds  are  more  than  half  a  million  dollars;  the  campus 
and  parks,  while  needing  a  few  additions  to  complete 
the  unity,  are  spacious,  one  hundred  acres,  and  of 

219 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

rare  fitness,  convenience  and  attractiveness.  The 
nine  buildings,  all  are  doing  excellent  service,  several 
of  them  are  perfect  of  their  kind.  The  possibilities 
of  growth  and  the  need  of  expansion  are  very  great. 
The  endowment  fund  should  be  doubled.  The  build- 
ings, good  or  bad,  are  utterly  inadequate  to  funda- 
mental necessities,  with  the  exception  of  the  Library 
Building,  which  is  elegant,  commanding,  up-to-date, 
and  fire-proof;  Science  Hall  is  equally  satisfactory, 
but  is  occupied  every  hour  of  the  day  and  evening 
and  insufferably  crowded  at  that.  Dormitories  for 
young  women  and  young  men,  halls  for  Y.  W.  C.  A. 
and  Y.  M.  C.  A.'s,  a  gymnasium  for  young  women,  a 
Music  Hall  and  an  Art  Building  are  badly  needed. 

"Southern  California  is  making  rapid  progress  as 
the  census  report  shows  and  the  college  constituency 
is  increasing  and  better  able  to  contribute  to  its  funds, 
but  its  resources  have  not  yet  caught  up  with  the 
demands  and  growth  of  the  college.  No  one  familiar 
with  the  country  questions  that  the  period  of  such 
adequacy  and  the  intelligence  to  devote  these  re- 
sources to  such  a  purpose,  are  in  the  near  future.  Dr. 
Pearsons  has  certainly  hastened  the  coming  of  that 
period  and  is  held  in  high  esteem  at  Pomona." 


220 


XV 


GIFTS  TO  MISSIONS  AND  MISSIONARY 
COLLEGES 


XV 

GIFTS  TO  MISSIONS  AND  MISSIONARY 
COLLEGES 

PERHAPS  nothing  indicates  more  clearly  the 
wide  outlook  of  Dr.  Pearsons  and  his  intelli- 
gent sympathy  with  the  effort  to  evangelize 
the  world  than  his  gifts  to  missions.  He  became 
interested  in  them  very  early  in  his  business  career 
through  his  wife,  who  was  an  earnest  supporter  of 
the  Woman's  Board  of  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  and  after  their  removal  to  Hinsdale,  of  the 
Woman's  Board  of  Missions  connected  with  the 
Congregational  churches.  As  representing  his  wife 
and  himself,  in  1887  he  gave  the  Presbyterian  Women 
twenty  thousand  dollars  of  which  so  much  of  the 
income  was  to  be  used  as  would  be  required  to  sup- 
port two  missionaries  in  the  fields  under  the  care  of 
the  Board,  and  the  remainder  as  necessities  might 
arise.  Through  their  influence,  in  part  at-  least, 
and  with  their  approval,  Miss  Julia  A.  Chapin,  a 
sister  of  Mrs.  Pearsons,  who  had  lived  with  them  for 
many  years,  at  her  death  left  the  Congregational 
Woman's  Board  of  the  Interior  more  than  twenty 
thousand  dollars  as  an  endowment,  and  when  the 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

demand  for  buildings  for  Anatolia  College  in  Mar- 
sovan,  Turkey,  could  no  longer  be  put  off,  gifts  from 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Pearsons  secured  their  erection.  This 
was  in  eighteen  ninety-two.  As  to  the  timeliness 
of  this  gift,  officials  of  the  American  Board  as  well 
as  the  faculty  of  the  college  have  given  repeated  and 
gratifying  testimony.  When  the  Board  was  hold- 
ing a  special  meeting  in  Chicago  in  1905,  Dr.  Pear- 
sons sent  to  Secretary  Patton  a  letter  promising  the 
Board  fifty  thousand  dollars  toward  the  endowment 
of  the  college.  He  did  this  because  he  knew  and 
admired  its  President,  Rev.  Dr.  Tracy,  and  because 
he  felt  that  any  money  entrusted  to  the  care  of  the 
Board  would  be  wisely  invested.  He  had  carefully 
studied  the  field  from  which  the  college  was  drawing 
its  students  and  foresaw  the  influence  which  edu- 
cated Christian  men  and  women  would  have  on  the 
future  of  Turkey.  But  he  did  not  dream  of  its 
attracting  students,  as  it  has  done,  from  Greece  or 
Egypt,  or  the  Soudan  or  Albania,  though  he  did 
think  its  situation  favorable  for  some  influence  in 
Russia.  What  the  college  with  its  preparatory 
department,  its  theological  department  and  its 
hospital  has  accomplished  since  its  opening  in  1886 
under  a  charter  from  Massachusetts,  and  is  now 
accomplishing,  is  told  in  the  following  letter  from 
one  of  its  Professors,  the  Rev.  G.  E.  White. 


224 


GIFTS  TO  MISSIONS 

"  GRINNELL,  IOWA,  Sept.  29,  1910. 

"Rev.  J.  L.  BARTON,  D.D. 
Sec.  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.,  Boston. 

" My  dear  Mr.  Barton: — 

"Your  favor  of  the  19th  inst.  has  come  to  hand, 
and  though  we  are  rather  busy  in  arranging  to  leave 
again  for  Turkey  next  week,  it  is  a  pleasure  to  respond 
to  your  request  for  an  estimate  of  the  value  of  Dr. 
Pearsons'  great  gift  to  Anatolia  College. 

"That  gift  of  $50,000.00  provided  about  one-fifth 
of  the  endowment  needed  to  carry  on  the  institution 
for  its  present  work.  We  had  about  an  equal  amount 
in  the  endowment  fund  before,  and  this  is  aside  from 
the  need  for  buildings,  which  is  being  partially  pro- 
vided for  at  the  present  time,  from  other  sources. 

"In  22  years,  from  1886  to  1908,  the  College  grew 
from  the  status  of  the  high  school,  which  was 
merged  into  it  at  the  foundation,  to  the  character  of 
a  real  college,  incorporated  under  the  laws  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  with  its  diploma  recognized  by  leading 
universities  and  professional  schools  in  the  United 
States  and  Europe.  The  original  building  was 
repeatedly  enlarged  to  accommodate  the  growing 
needs,  and  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Pearsons  gave  over  $20,000.00 
to  building  and  other  purposes  before  the  great 
gift  to  the  endowment.  The  Faculty  increased  to 
23  men,  of  whom  8  were  Americans  (most  of  us 
being  missionaries  largely  occupied  with  other 
duties)  one  Swiss  and  14  natives  of  the  country, 
Armenian  or  Greek  gentlemen.  Of  these  last,  8 
had  taken  special  post-graduate  study  to  fit  them 
for  their  positions,  having  taken  their  advanced 
courses  in  Carleton  College,  Yale  University  (both 
men  receiving  the  degree  of  Ph.  D.),  New  College, 
Edinburgh,  the  University  of  Berlin,  the  University 

15  225 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

of  Athens,  the  Imperial  Law  School,  Constantinople, 
The  Royal  Conservatory  of  Music,  Stuttgart,  and 
the  Academy  in  Paris.  These  men  together  make 
a  strong  Faculty,  influential  among  their  people 
outside  the  college  as  they  are  with  the  students 
within. 

"During  these  22  years  224  young  men  graduated 
of  whom  17  are  now  deceased,  while  207  survive. 
There  are  now  21  preachers,  about  10%  of  the  whole 
number;  52  teachers,  about  25%,  48  medical  men, 
about  25%  and  86  in  business,  about  40%.  I  can 
count  47  in  America,  of  whom  about  one-third 
are  settled  in  business,  one-third  are  the  various 
professions,  and  one-third  are  students.  Many  of 
these  will  go  back  to  their  native  lands  later,  and 
each  is  a  force  among  his  people  in  the  old  country. 
Foreign  countries  have  drawn  others:  England,  6; 
France,  2;  Egypt,  4;  the  Soudan,  1;  Greece,  4; 
Bulgaria,  1.  These  are  mostly  in  business,  but  some 
are  professional  men;  all  seem  to  keep  up  an  interest 
in  the  land  of  their  nativity.  Many  support  students 
in  the  college,  or  support  schools  among  their  home 
communities.  Where  the  people  are  poor  as  they 
are  in  general  in  Turkey,  and  where  churches,  schools 
and  all  the  institutions  of  society  are  yet  to  be  built 
up  for  the  most  part,  as  is  also  the  case,  one  cannot 
but  be  glad  that  there  are  young  men  going  into 
business  to  develop  the  resources  of  the  country, 
benefit  the  impoverished  communities,  and  foot  the 
bills  for  the  improved  conditions  that  are  to  be. 
One  may  be  glad,  too,  that  with  the  ordinary  tricky 
character  of  business  in  the  Orient  a  class  of  capable 
young  men  is  rising  who  have  high  ideals  of  integrity 
and  honor.  The  market  of  Marsovan  has  the  repu- 
tation of  doing  more  business  and  more  honest  busi- 
ness, than  the  market  of  any  similar  city  in  the 

226 


GIFTS  TO  MISSIONS 

region,  and  this  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  Protestant 
Church  and  the  college.  Besides  the  graduates 
classified  above,  more  than  1000  other  young  men 
were  for  a  time  students  in  the  institution,  but  left 
for  the  usual  various  reasons  without  completing 
the  course. 

"Meanwhile  on  July  24,  1908,  the  Constitution 
and  New  Regime  were  proclaimed,  and  now  the 
opportunity  before  the  college  was  doubled  in  a  day. 
We  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  Turks  addressing 
Turkish  audiences,  express  public  thanks  for  the 
American  assistance  they  had  received:  thanks  for 
such  ideas  as  those  of  Liberty,  the  Emancipation  of 
Women,  Progress  for  the  People,  Common  School 
Education,  and  the  like.  An  Ottoman  Freedom 
and  Progress  Club  was  organized  in  our  town,  as 
elsewhere,  to  form  and  direct  public  sentiment,  and 
of  the  administrative  council  of  twelve  men,  three 
were  graduates  of  Anatolia  College,  a  fourth  had 
been  for  some  time  a  student,  and  a  fifth,  like  some 
others,  was  a  Protestant.  That  brought  us  mis- 
sionaries into  very  close  relations  with  that  body 
which  more  than  any  other  controlled  public  opinion 
and  events,  and  we  were  cordially  and  frequently 
invited  to  attend  the  Club  and  share  in  the  discus- 
sions. 

"Meanwhile  the  field  of  the  college  has  been  widen- 
ing. Half  of  the  29  provinces  of  the  Ottoman  Em- 
pire are  habitually  represented  among  the  students, 
and  they  come  from  beyond.  Greece  always  sends 
a  small  contingent:  there  are  several  Albanians: 
Egypt  has  a  part  in  the  student  body:  now  it  is  the 
turn  of  Russia.  Three  years  ago  two  students 
strayed  over  from  across  the  Black  Sea.  The  next 
year  when  they  came  back  they  brought  six  more; 
this  last  year  there  were  twenty;  and  the  end  is  not 

227 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

yet.  This  year  for  the  first  time  there  is  instruction 
provided  in  Russian,  and  it  seems  there  is  a  great 
work  opening  before  us  for  those  people  who  are  at 
our  doors  to  the  north,  and  who  are  looking  about 
for  light  and  leading. 

"There  are  some  advantages  in  our  location  which 
we  have  been  slow  to  find  out.  The  Turkish  popu- 
lation of  the  region  is  among  the  best  to  be  found. 
They  are  in  general  well-disposed  and  friendly. 
Some  have  begun  to  send  their  sons  to  the  college, 
and  more  are  considering  the  question.  We  have 
an  admirable  climate,  and  fine  premises,  just  on  the 
edge  of  the  city.  Back  of  the  campus  the  moun- 
tains rise  to  a  height  of  6000  feet.  The  population 
about  are  largely  of  the  middle  class,  being  neither 
very  rich,  nor  sunk  in  helpless  poverty.  We  have 
the  advantage  of  being  near  the  Black  Sea,  yet  free 
from  certain  disadvantages  of  an  actual  coast  town 
in  the  Levant.  There  is  no  institution  that  could 
be  called  a  rival  near  in  any  direction,  while  the 
local  communities  are  making  strenuous  efforts  to 
improve  their  institutions  in  order  to  retain  their 
constituents. 

"Our  students  get  a  good  use  of  the  English  lan- 
guage, and  take  their  advanced  lessons  through 
this  medium.  They  are  in  general  studious,  cour- 
teous and  tractable.  They  come  because  they  and 
their  parents  believe  in  the  moral  character  of  the 
institution.  The  Bible  is  taught  as  regularly  as  any 
other  lesson,  and  receives  reverent  attention.  Preach- 
ing services  are  maintained  on  Sundays,  as  well  as  the 
Sunday  school,  and  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  is  active  and 
helpful.  Most  of  the  students  belong  by  birth  to 
one  or  another  of  the  Oriental  Churches,  though 
from  one-fourth  to  one-third  are  Protestants.  It 
is  only  a  question  of  time  and  method  when  these 

228 


GIFTS  TO  MISSIONS 

Oriental  Churches  are  to  follow  the  State  through 
a  period  of  Reformation,  or  they  cannot  hold  their 
congregations.  Many  of  our  young  men  who  can- 
not bring  themselves  to  break  away  from  their 
Mother  Church,  look  forward  with  ardor  to  the  time 
when  they  will  have  an  opportunity  to  share  in  move- 
ments for  reform  from  within. 

"College  charges  are  kept  as  low  as  possible,— 
$66.00  per  year,  for  tuition,  board,  lodging,  laundry, 
fuel  and  bath.  Some,  however,  cannot  meet  even 
these  low  figures,  and  a  Self  Help  Department  is 
maintained  accordingly,  whereby  about  one-third 
of  the  students  are  enabled  to  earn  some  part  of 
their  school  dues.  They  work  in  the  large  carpenter 
shop,  or  the  book  bindery,  or  wait  on  table  or  sweep 
the  floors.  The  impoverishing  or  pauperizing  of  the 
young  men  themselves  is  thus  avoided,  the  dignity 
of  labor  maintained,  and  useful  trades  are  mastered. 

"It  would  be  easy  to  take  individual  students,  or 
graduates,  and  dwell  on  the  meaning  of  their  educa- 
tion, but  space  is  limited.  Here  is  a  college  professor, 
there  is  a  pastor  of  a  large  congregation,  yonder  a 
pioneer  evangelist;  one  is  a  doctor,  laying  the  foun- 
dations of  medical  science  among  people  who  have 
confused  medicine  and  magic  hitherto;  another  has 
an  American  education  as  a  dentist;  another  is  a 
silk  manufacturer;  one  is  in  the  employ  of  an  Amer- 
ican wholesale  farm  implement  house;  another  is  a 
graduate  in  engineering;  another  has  quietly  applied 
chemistry  to  the  old  crude  methods  of  dyeing  and 
is  at  the  same  time  a  leader  in  all  work  pertaining 
to  the  church.  There  are  failures  among  our  young 
friends  but  the  percentage  of  success,  as  such  things 
are  reckoned  by  the  best  standards,  is  remarkably 
high.  The  joy  of  it  is,  that  fraternal  effort  from 
America  is  met  fully  half  way,  and  that  we  may 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

cooperate  on  the  basis  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  with 
the  best  people  and  the  best  efforts  of  the  country, 
where  everybody  is  breaking  with  his  past,  and  is 
seeking  for  something  worthy  in  life. 

"The  question  is  often  asked  whether  the  Young 
Turk  Movement  can  last.  The  best  answer  is,  that 
it  has  passed  safely  through  three  periods  of  stress 
already.  The  first  was  in  July,  1908,  when  the 
Revolution  was  effected;  the  second  came  in  April, 
1909,  when  the  forces  of  Reaction  were  met  and  over- 
come; the  third  was  in  the  Spring  of  1910  when 
Rebellion  within,  as  led  by  the  untutored  Albanians, 
was  suppressed.  Every  day  that  the  New  Regime 
holds  is  a  day  to  the  good. 

"The  College  Seal  and  Motto  represent  the  actual 
scene  from  the  front  door,  the  sun  rising  over  a  moun- 
tain chain,  with  the  words,  which  are  suggested  by 
the  name  Anatolia,  The  Morning  Cometh. 

"Perhaps  I  should  have  dwelt  more  specifically  on 
what  Dr.  Pearsons'  gift  accomplished.  But  it  really 
fitted  into  what  was  already  being  done,  relieved 
the  Board  in  part  and  is  hardly  to  be  distinguished 
in  its  use  from  the  other  funds  and  resources  of  the 
College,  though  of  course  these  funds  were  swelled 
by  the  annual  interest  from  the  gift.  We  are  glad 
such  funds  are  held  by  the  Board  for  safety  of  invest- 
ment, and  the  interest  employed  with  the  other 

resources.  0.         , 

Sincerely  yours, 

G.  E.  WHITE." 

Anatolia  College  is  situated  on  a  plain  about  2500 
feet  above  sea-level.  It  is  seventy -five  miles  south 
of  Samsoun,  its  sea  port  on  the  Black  Sea,  and  is  350 
miles  east  of  Constantinople.  It  is  the  only  college 
of  high  grade  in  a  region  of  80,000  square  miles  and 


GIFTS  TO  MISSIONS 

containing  hardly  less  than  ten  million  people.  The 
population  of  the  city  of  Marsovan  is  about  30,000, 
and  yet  the  expense  for  board  and  tuition  is  less  than 
seventy  dollars  a  year.  The  department  of  Self 
Help  renders  it  possible  for  any  young  person  anxious 
for  an  education  to  attend  the  college  and  meet  his 
expenses.  Yet  in  spite  of  the  low  price  charged  for 
tuition  and  board  nearly  or  quite  two-thirds  of  the 
income  of  the  college  is  obtained  from  this  source. 
The  growth  of  the  college  has  been  gradual  but 
satisfactory  and  the  outlook  leads  one  to  believe 
that  its  motto,  "  The  Morning  cometh"  has  been 
well  chosen. 

So  well  pleased  was  the  Doctor  with  his  gifts  to 
missions  that  he  determined  that  his  last  hundred 
thousand  dollars  should  be  set  aside  for  the  support 
of  the  educational  department  of  the  American  Board. 
He  had  been  thinking  of  doing  this  for  many  months, 
but  only  a  few  weeks  before  the  centennial  meeting 
in  Boston,  decided  finally  to  make  the  gift.  When 
the  telegram  to  Secretary  Barton  was  read  announc- 
ing his  decision,  the  audience  could  not  restrain  its 
applause.  Dr.  Barton  himself  reports  the  scene  and 
the  effect  of  the  gift,  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Pearsons, 
which  is  full  of  the  spirit  of  the  occasion,  and  is  too 
good  to  be  abbreviated. 

«™      T^    v   T>  "OCTOBER  17,  1910. 

"DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS, 

Hinsdale,  Illinois. 
"My  dear  Dr.  Pearsons: — 

"We  have  been  so  tied  up  with  our  Anniversary 
services  that  I  have  been  unable  to  write  any  letters. 

231 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K  PEARSONS 

My  correspondence  has  been  by  telegram.  We  did 
get  an  opportunity  to  send  you  a  telegram  expressing 
our  great  joy  and  satisfaction  at  your  telegram  which 
came  on  Monday.  Your  letter  came  also  in  due 
time  and  was,  of  course,  presented  to  the  great 
Assembly.  I  wish  you  could  have  been  present 
and  seen  them  almost  raise  the  roof.  The  whole 
audience  rose  when  your  telegram  was  read  and 
sang  'All  Hail  The  Power  of  Jesus'  Name/  It 
was  necessary  for  them  in  some  way  to  express  the 
gratitude  and  appreciation  which  they  felt  to  you 
for  this  great  and  noble  gift  to  the  American  Board. 
It  is  already  opening  channels  of  approach  to  others, 
and  as  I  wired  you,  I  believe  that  we  shall  be  able 
to  match  your  hundred  thousand  with  twenty  other 
sums  of  equal  amount  before  many  months  have 
passed.  You  will  never  know  the  extent  of  the 
influence  of  this  gift,  and  while  it  is  not  conditioned 
we  are  going  to  make  that  money  earn  more  than 
any  hundred  thousand  dollars  you  ever  gave.  It 
is  a  great  thing  to  be  the  recipient  of  your  last  great 
gift,  and  I  assure  you  that  we  appreciate  it.  The 
Lord  raised  you  up  for  one  of  the  greatest  services 
that  it  has  been  permitted  men  to  perform  in  this 
world ! 

"I  want  to  take  violent  exception  to  a  statement 
in  your  letter  that  'On  my  next  birthday  I  shall 
close  up  my  work.'  Do  you  suppose  that  you  can 
ever  close  up  your  work?  You  may  give  away  all 
that  which  you  have  earned,  but  you  will  not  close 
up  your  work !  Your  work  is  going  on  in  the  colleges 
of  this  country  and  in  the  colleges  abroad  for  a  thou- 
sand years  and  more, — multiplying  in  momentum  and 
power.  But  more  than  this  your  work  is  going  on 
here  in  this  country.  You  have  established  a  new 
principle  of  giving,  set  up  a  new  standard,  and  many 

232 


GIFTS  TO  MISSIONS 

of  whom  you  have  never  seen  and  of  whom  you  will 
never  hear,  are  taking  their  inspiration  from  your 
magnificent  example  and  are  giving  liberally  and 
with  an  abandon  which  they  never  would  have  done, 
had  they  not  had  before  them  your  twenty-one 
years  of  princely  giving.  That  is  your  work  that 
is  going  on  and  is  to  go  on  forever,  and  you  cannot 
stop  it.  So  please  do  not  think  of  closing  up  your 
work.  You  cannot  do  it  if  you  would.  You  would 
not  do  it  if  you  could. 

"How  can  I  find  words  to  express  the  gratitude 
which  we  of  the  American  Board  feel  that  you  have 
thus  helped  on  the  education  of  the  growing  mind 
of  the  East  as  it  is  struggling  out  into  the  world 
influence  and  power!  This  money  will  go  as  far 
in  bringing  to  those  young  people  of  the  East  the 
fundamental  principles  of  Western  education  and 
Christian  civilization  as  a  million  dollars  would  go 
in  this  country  for  the  same  number.  We  shall 
not  fail  to  pray  that  your  life  may  be  greatly  pro- 
longed to  see  the  fruit  of  the  splendid  work  you  have 
started. 

I  remain, 

Very  sincerely  yours, 
JAMES  L.  BARTON." 

In  thus  putting  nearly  or  quite  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  from  first  to  last,  into  the  work  of 
Foreign  Missions,  without  any  other  conditions  than 
that  the  income  of  the  money  be  used  for  educational 
purposes  and  as  the  officers  of  the  Boards  having  it 
in  charge  shall  direct,  Dr.  Pearsons  has  shown  his 
confidence  in  the  wisdom  of  these  officers  and  his 
belief  in  the  work  they  are  trying  to  do.  Through 

233 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

his  last  gift  he  will  have  a  share  in  the  training  of 
young  people  in  nearly  every  part  of  the  world,  and 
become  almost  as  well  known  in  the  mission  fields 
of  the  American  Board  as  he  now  is  in  the  United 
States. 


234 


LIST  OF  COLLEGES  AIDED  BY  DR.  PEARSONS 


Anatolia,  Marsovan,  Turkey. 
Berea,  Ky. 

Bethany,  West  Virginia. 
Carleton,  Northfield,  Minn. 
Coe,  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa. 
Colorado,  Colorado  Springs,  Colo. 
Deer  Lodge,  Montana. 
Doane,  Crete,  Neb. 
Drury,  Springfield,  Mo. 
Fairmount,  Wichita,  Kansas. 
Fargo,  N.  Dakota. 
German,  Dubuque,  Iowa. 
Grant  University,  Chattanooga, 

Tenn. 

Guilford,  N.  C. 
Hastings,  Neb. 
Huron,  S.  Dakota. 
Illinois,  Jacksonville,  111. 
Kingfisher,  Okla. 
Knox,  Galesburg,  111, 
Lake  Forest,  111. 
Lawrence  University,  Appleton, 

Wis. 
Marietta,  Ohio. 


Marysville,  Tenn. 

McKendree,  Lebanon,  111. 

Middlebury,  Vt. 

Mt.  Holyoke,  South  Hadley,  Mass. 

Newberry,  S.  C. 

Northwestern  University,  Evans- 
ton,  111. 

Olivet,  Michigan. 

Pacific  University,  Forest  Grove, 
Oregon. 

Park  College,  Parkville,  Mo. 

Piedmont,  Demorest,  Ga. 

Pomona,  Claremont,  Cal. 

Ripon,  Wis. 

Rollins,  Winter  Park,  Fla. 

Sheridan,  Wyoming, 

Tahoe,  Caldwell,  Idaho. 

Tabor,  Iowa. 

Washington  and  Tusculum,  Wash- 
ington County,  Tenn. 

Washburn,  Topeka,  Kansas. 

Whitman,  Walla  Walla,  Washing- 
ton. 

Yankton,  S.  Dakota. 


THEOLOGICAL    SEMINARIES   AIDED 
Chicago,  111.  McCormick,  Chicago,  111. 


SECONDARY   SCHOOLS   AIDED 


Montpelier  Seminary,  Vt. 
Onarga,  111. 


Westminster  School,  Vt. 
West   Virginia   Conference   Semi- 
nary, Buckhannon,  W.  Va. 


235 


XVI 

APPRECIATIVE  WORDS 


XVI 
APPRECIATIVE  WORDS 

FOR  expressions  of  thanks  Dr.  Pearsons  has 
never  looked.  He  has  not  been  indifferent  to 
them,  has  been  grateful  when  they  have  come, 
but  has  not  sought  them.  He  has  distributed  his 
fortune  with  a  sense  of  responsibility  to  "that 
good  Providence"  from  which  he  says  it  came. 
With  the  approval  of  his  own  conscience  and  the 
consciousness  that  he  has  carried  out,  so  far  as  he 
could,  the  will  of  God  he  has  been  satisfied.  Yet 
people  who  have  received  gifts  from  his  generous 
hand,  and  those  who  are  deeply  interested  in  the 
causes  to  which  he  has  devoted  his  fortune,  have 
not  failed  to  express  in  manifold  ways  their  appre- 
ciation of  the  work  he  has  accomplished  during  a 
period  of  more  than  a  score  of  years. 

The  words  that  follow  are  taken  from  letters 
written  at  different  times,  and  from  resolutions 
passed  by  different  bodies  on  various  occasions. 
They  are  only  samples  of  hundreds,  perhaps  thou- 
sands, which  might  be  given. 

Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie  writes: — 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

"You  cannot  say  anything  too  good  of  Pearsons." 
Of  his  charity,  its  forms  and  conditions,  he  adds, 
"It  is  the  best  line  of  benevolence  ever  made  in 
America." 

Secretary  J.  L.  Barton  of  the  American  Board 
of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions  in  sending 
congratulations  on  Dr.  Pearsons'  eighty-eighth 
birthday  says,  "We  appreciate  the  wonderful 
things  you  have  done,  and  are  doing.  That  a  man 
88  years  young  should  have  an  interest  in  great 
movements  as  you  have,  is  a  marvel  indeed";  yet 
no  marvel,  if  we  remember  that  to  him  every  morn- 
ing the  mail  was  bringing  from  one  hundred  to  two 
hundred  letters,  with  information  from  all  parts  of 
the  world. 

President  J.  A.  B.  Scherer  of  Newberry  College, 
S.  C.,  a  Lutheran,  writes:  "His  gifts  are  the 
most  profitable  investments  in  the  world.  He  is 
more  deeply  interested  in  the  cause  of  Christian 
education  than  any  other  man  I  ever  saw.  He 
is  the  happiest  old  man  I  ever  saw,  and  his 
happiness  is  not  a  whit  sanctimonious.  He  be- 
lieves that  to  turn  unprofitable  men  into  profit- 
able manhood  is  the  best  investment  in  the 
world.  One  of  the  finest  things  in  this  strong  and 
noble  life  is  the  way  in  which  it  has  influenced 
others." 

Similar  testimony  is  borne  by  President  Lewis 
E.  Holden  of  Wooster  University,  for  a  long 
time  the  financial  agent  of  Beloit  College,  and  a 
man  to  whose  enthusiastic,  self-denying  service 

240 


APPRECIATIVE  WORDS 

in  gathering  funds  to  meet  the  conditions  imposed 
by  Dr.  Pearsons,  that  college  is  deeply  indebted. 
He  writes  from  Beloit  itself,  on  commencement 
day,  June  11,  1908.  .  .  .  "You  have  certainly 
done  a  great  work.  Your  life  is  going  to  tell  cen- 
turies after  you  have  gone  to  your  everlasting 
reward.  ...  All  our  hearts  go  out  to  you  in 
thanksgiving  for  what  you  have  so  wisely  done  for 
our  own  alma  mater." 

President  James  of  the  University  of  Illinois, 
June  28,  1909,  writes:  "You  have  certainly 
built  a  great  monument  to  yourself  and  your  family 
while  doing  a  great  service  to  the  people  of  your 
country." 

A  characteristic  letter  from  the  Hon.  John  Eaton, 
under  date  of  April  8,  1900,  then  Commissioner  of 
Education  may  be  given  entire. 

"FATHER  OF  COLLEGES. 

My  dear  Doctor: — Yours  of  the  7th  came  duly  at 
hand.  I  thank  you  heartily.  Would  that  all  the 
money  given  to  colleges  were  given  with  the  care 
that  yours  is.  My  16  years  of  service  as  U.  S. 
Commissioner  of  Education  has  given  me  special 
familiarity  with  the  localities  and  enterprises  which 
you  have  aided,  and  aside  from  other  merits  there 
is  a  strategic  bearing  in  them  which  I  also  admire." 

Following  one  of  his  large  gifts  to  Berea  College 
in  April,  1899,  Governor  Bradley  of  Kentucky, 
wrote:  "I  cannot  refrain  from  writing  to  thank 
you  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart.  Berea  is  doing 

16 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

a  great  work  among  a  section  of  our  people  which 
needs  the  work,  and  which  will  respond  to  it 
a  hundred  fold,  for  the  mountain  whites  have 
splendid  stuff  in  them."  The  same  month  ex- 
President  Roosevelt,  then  Governor  of  New  York, 
wrote  in  similar  vein.  In  fact  this  gift  called 
forth  expressions  of  grateful  appreciation  from 
almost  every  section  of  the  country.  It  was 
about  this  time  that  in  reviewing  the  work  of  Dr. 
Pearsons  an  editorial  writer  in  the  New  York  World 
said,  "For  a  level-headed  philanthropist  commend 
me  to  Dr.  Pearsons  of  Chicago,  who  not  only  makes 
his  benefactions  to  the  cause  of  education  during 
his  lifetime,  but  who  lays  down  the  rule  that  his 
money  is  not  to  go  to  the  rich  colleges,  which  do  not 
need  it,  but  to  the  poor  struggling  institutions  which 
are  just  as  valuable  as  the  wealthy  schools.  Dr. 
Pearsons  is  as  wise  and  judicious  as  he  is  generous 
and  unselfish." 

In  March,  1900,  the  representatives  of  South  Da- 
kota in  Washington,  D.  C.,  sent  Dr.  Pearsons  a 
letter  of  hearty  thanks  for  what  he  had  done  for 
Yankton  College. 

On  receipt  of  a  check  for  $5,000.00  for  Ripon 
College,  Wisconsin,  President  Merrill  wrote,  Febru- 
ary 24,  1900,  "I  actually  believe  you  have  been  the 
wisest  large  giver  I  ever  knew,  or  ever  heard  of. 
You  have  made  what  you  have  given  tell  for  the 
most  at  the  very  centers  of  moral  and  intellectual 
force,  and  you  have  put  your  money  where  it  will 

242 


APPRECIATIVE  WORDS 

be  working  for  long  generations  after  we  who  are 
now  living  have  passed  away." 

At  the  end  of  a  severe  and  protracted  struggle  to 
meet  the  conditions  upon  which  Dr.  Pearsons  gave 
Drury  College,  Springfield,  Missouri,  $25,000.00, 
Dr.  Homer  T.  Fuller,  then  President,  wrote: 
"Yours  with  enclosed  check  for  $25,000.00  was 
received  this  morning  just  before  chapel  exercises. 
After  these  were  over  I  announced  the  receipt  of 
the  sum  which  was  the  culmination  of  our  efforts 
for  this  endowment.  The  applause  was  followed 
by  a  rising  vote  of  thanks  to  you  and  the  college 
cheer.  May  God  bless  you  and  grant  you  many 
years  more  to  see  the  fruitage  of  your  labors  and 
of  your  royal  benevolence."  It  was  during  the 
Presidency  of  Dr.  Fuller  that  the  foundations  of 
Drury  were  greatly  strengthened  and  the  interest 
of  Dr.  Pearsons  through  him  and  Dr.  Henry  Hopkins 
then  of  Kansas  City,  later  President  of  Williams 
College,  Massachusetts,  aroused  in  its  behalf.  The 
reception  which  he  and  Mrs.  Pearsons  received  on 
their  visit  to  the  college  brought  forth  from  the  Doc- 
tor one  of  his  most  eloquent  and  effective  addresses 
and  gave  him  an  experience  of  which  he  often  speaks 
as  one  of  the  happiest  and  most  satisfying  of  his 
life. 

It  was  when  on  a  visit  to  some  of  the  colleges  he 
had  aided,  that  on  April  5,  1902,  he  stopped  over  at 
Springfield,  Illinois,  and  made  his  way  into  the 
State  House.  He  was  quickly  discovered  and  taken 
into  the  Hall  of  Representatives  and  introduced 

243 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

to  its  members  by  Speaker  Sherman,  after  which 
the  following  resolution  was  read  and  unanimously 
adopted  amid  great  enthusiasm: 

"Whereas  we  have  with  us  a  visitor  on  the  floor 
of  this  House  this  morning,  Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons  of 
Chicago,  the  distinguished  philanthropist  and  lib- 
eral patron  of  education,  than  whom  no  other  Amer- 
ican has  done  greater  or  more  practical  work  for 
the  advancement  of  education,  particularly  in  the 
way  of  aiding  the  worthy  smaller  institutions,  whose 
peculiar  province  is  to  make  possible  the  education 
and  training  of  the  young  people  who  struggle 
against  poverty  and  adverse  conditions,  and  who 
after  heroic  struggle  make  the  staunchest  warp  and 
woof  of  the  social  fabric  .  .  .  and 

"Whereas  we  recognize  that  in  the  munificent 
practical  benefactions  of  Doctor  Pearsons  a  work 
has  been  accomplished  which  will  make  mightily 
for  the  uplifting  of  humanity  for  all  time  to  come. 

"Therefore  Be  it  resolved  by  this  House  that  in 
appreciation  of  the  great  life  work  of  this  distin- 
guished benefactor  we  honor  his  presence  here  this 
morning  by  the  adoption  of  this  resolution  by  a 
rising  vote." 

This  was  quickly  done  and  the  Doctor  was  then 
conducted  to  the  rostrum  by  the  Chaplain,  where 
among  other  things  in  an  impromptu  but  very 
effective  address  he  said: 

"You  have  passed  a  resolution  today  that  does 
me  more  good  than  anything  I  ever  had  done  for 
me  before.  I  made  my  money  in  the  State  of  Illinois, 
honestly  and  squarely.  I  am  using  that  money  while 
I  am  alive.  I  don't  want  any  inheritance  tax  on 

244 


APPRECIATIVE  WORDS 

my  property  when  I  am  gone.  I  am  using  the  money 
instead  to  educate  and  bring  up  poor  boys  and  girls. 
I  am  for  the  boy  behind  the  plow.  That  is  the  boy 
I  am  after.  And  I  say  to  you  gentlemen  of  this 
assembly  that  there  is  no  business  a  man  ever  en- 
gaged in  that  will  compare  with  the  business  I  am 
doing,  and  to  be  approved  by  you  gives  me  great 
satisfaction. 

"Gentlemen,  I  sincerely  and  heartily  thank  you, 
and  I  shall  keep  right  on  in  the  way  I  am  doing, 
lifting  up  the  poor.  I  never  give  to  the  rich.  I  am 
for  the  poor  boys  and  girls.  The  smartest  girl  in 
the  curriculum  of  the  colleges  I  am  helping  is  a  day- 
laborer's  daughter,  the  smartest  boy  is  a  teamster's 
boy.  I  want  to  give  those  boys  and  girls  a  chance. 
Gentlemen,  I  thank  you." 

A  letter  from  Mr.  Wallace  Butterick,  Secretary 
of  the  Rockefeller  Fund  of  General  Education 
Board,  sets  forth  in  fitting  terms  the  appreciation  in 
which  Dr.  Pearsons  is  held  by  thoughtful  men.  He 
writes  from  New  York,  under  date  of  April  10,  1911 : 

"I  share  the  high  appreciation  which  all  thought- 
ful people  entertain  for  the  character  and  work  of 
Dr.  Pearsons.  He  has  given  us  a  noble  example 
of  how  best  to  employ  one's  means  for  the  promo- 
tion of  the  public  welfare  and  the  enhancing  of 
personal  happiness.  I  met  him  one  day  at  Hinsdale, 
and  it  seemed  to  me  that  I  never  met  a  happier  man. 

"I  believe  in  State  Universities  and  that  they  have 
rendered  noble  service  in  many  of  our  states.  I 
believe  also  in  the  privately  endowed  college.  The 
several  Christian  communions  of  our  country  have 
rendered  service  of  incalculable  value  in  founding 
and  maintaining,  as  they  have  done,  most  of  our 

245 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

leading  colleges.  It  is  greatly  to  the  honor  of  Dr. 
Pearsons  that  he  long  ago  recognized  that  fact  and 
has  contributed  so  largely  to  the  prosperity  of  so 
many  of  these  institutions." 

That  Dr.  Pearsons  was  thankful  for  the  apprecia- 
tion which  these  representatives  of  the  state  expressed 
admits  of  no  doubt,  for  while  he  never  sought  public- 
ity in  his  gifts,  and  cared  little  for  notoriety,  he 
would  have  been  more  than  human  not  to  take 
pleasure  in  the  approval  of  his  fellow-men. 

As  a  type  of  resolutions  passed  by  many  of  the 
colleges  aided  by  Dr.  Pearsons  one  adopted  by 
Beloit  College  on  the  Doctor's  ninetieth  birthday, 
and  one  that  touched  him  deeply,  may  here  be 
given.  It  is  dated  Beloit,  Wisconsin,  April  19,1910. 

"The  ninetieth  birthday  of  Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons, 
celebrated  five  days  ago,  is  one  of  those  events  which 
erect  beacons  on  the  shores  of  human  life,  to  illumi- 
nate and  guide.  It  is  fitting  that  we,  to  whom  are 
committed  the  interests  of  an  institution  which 
has  shared  so  richly  in  his  gifts,  should  put  on  record 
our  appreciation  of  Dr.  Pearsons'  wide  benefactions 
and  our  gratitude  for  what  he  has  done  for  Beloit. 
As  we  review  his  extraordinary  contributions  to  the 
welfare  of  humanity  we  are  impressed  by  the  fol- 
lowing elements  in  his  personality  and  his  career. 

"Dr.  Pearsons'  profound  conviction  of  the  impor- 
tance in  a  republic  of  the  right  training  of  mind  and 
character. 

"Dr.  Pearsons'  recognition  that  the  moral  and 
246 


APPRECIATIVE  WORDS 

religious  elements  in  education  are  its  essential  and 
permanent  factors. 

"Dr.  Pearsons'  catholic  spirit,  superior  to  the 
claims  of  any  sect  or  denomination. 

"Dr.  Pearsons'  discovery  of  making  large  benefac- 
tions so  conditioned  as  to  stimulate  instead  of  dimin- 
ishing the  efforts  of  those  responsible  for  an  institu- 
tion, and  to  multiply  instead  of  lessening  the  number 
of  its  cooperating  friends.  'No  one  man  college' 
has  been  his  consistent  attitude.  Mr.  Carnegie 
and  the  General  Education  Board  have  acknowledged 
his  wisdom  and  followed  his  lead.  Dr.  Pearsons, 
it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say,  has  assured  the  future 
of  the  American  college.  Concerning  it,  President 
Lowell  of  Harvard  says:  'It  has  a  great  work  to  do 
for  American  people.  For  that  work  Dr.  Pearsons 
has  reanimated  it  and  re-impowered  it.' 

"Dr.  Pearsons  has  set  a  new  standard  and  pace  of 
giving,  and  has  been  the  means  of  securing  from 
others  several  times  the  number  of  millions  which 
he  has  himself  contributed  to  the  institutions  so  near 
his  heart,  besides  stimulating  unmeasured  gifts  to 
other  objects. 

"Dr.  Pearsons  has  been  an  inspiring  genius  of 
Beloit  College,  and  its  second  founder.  By  his 
aid  it  has  been  lifted  to  a  commanding  position  of 
reputation  and  influence.  When  we  think  back  to 
Beloit,  as  it  was  when  he  first  put  his  strong  hand 
to  its  helm,  and  remember  his  share  in  its  every 
forward  movement,  we  are  deeply  impressed  with 
what  we  owe  to  his  wisdom  and  his  benefactions, 

247 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

the  results  of  which,  already  so  notable  will  widen 
with  the  ages  yet  to  be. 

"Dr.  Pearsons'  personal  qualities  have  fitted  him 
in  eminent  degree  for  leadership  in  the  great  cause 
to  which  he  has  devoted  himself.  Severe,  but 
never  unfeeling,  critical,  but  never  failing  in  high 
enthusiasm;  his  feet  on  the  ground  of  hard  fact, 
but  his  imagination  at  home  in  worlds  unrealized, 
scorning  pretence,  but  honoring  honest  effort,  and 
an  almost  passionate  friend  of  the  struggling  poor; 
of  imperious  will,  but  believing  in  men  of  will  as 
resolute  as  his  own;  abhorring  cant  and  religious 
pretenses,  but  loving  to  discern  a  Providential 
guidance  in  the  events  of  life;  as  unmoved  by  en- 
treaty as  is  the  headland  by  the  wave  that  beats 
against  it,  yet  giving  himself  like  the  reserves  of  an 
army  to  save  a  hard  fought  day,  he  is  greeted  as  a 
general  in  the  campaign  of  more  than  a  score  of 
years,  where  victory  has  meant  uplift,  progress, 
enlightenment  and  faith  in  God  and  man. 

"It  is  a  marvellous  thing  that  one  man's  life  should 
have  included  such  opportunities,  of  such  service 
and  such  wealth  of  achievement.  May  future 
years  bring  to  our  honored  friend  ever  richer  results 
from  his  benefactions  and  ever  fuller  joy. 

"(Signed  on  behalf  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of 
Beloit  College,  by  its  President  Edward  D.  Eaton 
and  its  Secretary,  E.  B.  Kilbourn.)" 

Gifts  to  other  colleges  have  been  not  less  timely 
or  valuable  than  those  to  Beloit  and  from  them 

248 


APPRECIATIVE  WORDS 

similar  resolutions  of  appreciation  and  gratitude 
have  not  failed  to  come.  To  one  who  can  look  back 
over  the  years  to  the  conditions  described  in  an 
earlier  chapter,  the  changes  brought  about  in  the 
state  of  feeling  toward  the  small  Christian  college 
seems  well-nigh  revolutionary. 

Colleges  would  have  been  glad  to  honor  him  with 
titles  but  for  the  most  part  have  refrained  from 
heaping  them  upon  him.  With  the  exception  of 
an  LL.  D.  from  Rollins  College,  Florida,  no  peculiar 
college  distinctions  have  been  conferred  upon  him. 
He  has  been  called  C.  B.  (College  Builder),  C.  F. 
(College  Founder),  and  in  these  titles  he  has  had 
real  pleasure.  In  another  he  would  be  equally  well 
pleased  were  there  a  suitable  term  for  it, — Teacher 
of  the  Sacredness  of  Endowments.  The  three  letters 
T.  S.  E.  would  suit  him  quite  as  well  as  the  three 
which  indicate  that  he  is  Doctor  of  Laws. 

But  no  better  illustration  of  the  regard  which  is 
felt  for  Dr.  Pearsons  in  or  about  Chicago  and  in 
many  other  parts  of  the  country,  can  be  given  than 
is  furnished  by  the  gathering  at  Hinsdale  Sanitarium, 
Hinsdale,  Illinois,  April  14,  1911,  in  recognition  of 
his  ninety -first  birthday.  The  gathering  was  ar- 
ranged by  Dr.  W.  E.  Barton  of  Oak  Park,  in  confer- 
ence with  Dr.  Paulson  of  the  Sanitarium.  Many  peo- 
ple from  the  village  as  well  as  from  the  city  were  pres- 
ent at  the  informal  gathering  in  the  parlors  of  the 
Sanitarium  which  followed  the  lunch  which  a  few 
intimate  friends  had  taken  as  guests  of  the  Doctor. 
One  of  the  more  than  eighty  telegrams  which  up  to 

249 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

noon  of  that  day  had  been  received,  was  from  John 
D.  Rockefeller,  and  reads  thus:  "Dr.  D.  K.  Pear- 
sons, Hinsdale.  I  rejoice  in  all  of  your  good  deeds. 
The  world  is  made  better  by  your  beautiful  ex- 
ample of  giving  so  generously  of  your  substance 
for  the  benefit  of  your  fellow  men.  I  congratulate 
you  on  your  ninety-first  birthday  and  wish  you 
many  happy  returns  of  the  same.  The  Lord  bless 
you  and  keep  you  in  health  and  happiness."  There 
were  telegrams  from  Governor  Deneen  of  Illinois, 
and  many  other  very  distinguished  men.  The  let- 
ters were  full  of  personal  expressions  of  esteem  and 
affection.  Congratulations  in  one  way  or  another 
came  from  the  President  of  every  college  which 
had  been  aided,  and  from  a  representative  of  every 
association  to  which  he  had  made  gifts.  The  ad- 
dresses at  the  public  gathering  were  necessarily  few 
and  brief.  Dr.  F.  A.  Noble,  so  many  years  pastor 
of  Union  Park,  Dr.  J.  C.  Armstrong,  Secretary  of 
the  City  Missionary  Society,  Dr.  A.  N.  Hitchcock, 
Secretary  of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Missions,  to  whom  was  handed  a  check 
for  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the  educational 
work  of  the  Board,  Dr.  O.  S.  Davis,  President  of 
the  Chicago  Theological  Seminary,  President  W.  G. 
Frost  of  Berea  College,  Kentucky,  had  part  in  these 
exercises,  Dr.  Simeon  Gilbert  spoke  briefly  and  ten- 
derly, and  presented  a  minute  which  he  had  pre- 
pared, and  which  had  been  accepted  as  an  expression 
of  the  feeling  of  the  members  of  the  Congregational 
Club,  Dr.  Paulson,  owner  and  manager  of  the  Sani- 

250 


APPRECIATIVE  WORDS 

tarium,  welcomed  the  visitors  to  its  hospitality 
and  Rev.  E.  F.  Williams  was  permitted  to  say  that 
he  counted  it  one  of  the  chief  privileges  of  his  life 
to  have  known  Dr.  Pearsons  and  to  have  been  hon- 
ored with  his  friendship.  In  introducing  the  dif- 
ferent speakers  Dr.  Barton  spoke  several  times  and 
with  great  felicity.  But  the  climax  came  when  Dr. 
Pearsons  himself  rose  to  reply  and  to  express  his 
appreciation  of  the  sympathy  he  had  received  from 
such  an  army  of  friends,  and  his  gratitude  to  the 
Press  for  the  assistance  it  had  given  him  from  the 
beginning  without  whose  aid  he  doubted  if  he  could 
have  accomplished  his  work.  He  said  that  he  had 
prepared  an  address  for  the  public  and  now  that  he 
had  completed  the  task  he  had  set  before  him,  and 
had  no  more  money  to  give  away,  he  would  retire 
to  private  life  and  enjoy  the  quiet  and  repose  which 
he  so  much  needed.  The  words  of  farewell  which 
were  spoken  as  one  and  another  took  the  hand  of  the 
venerable  philanthropist  were  tender  and  affection- 
ate. Such  a  day  as  this  is  a  rare  experience  in  the 
life  of  any  one,  rarer  still  when  it  comes  after 
twenty-two  years  of  as  strenuous  effort  rightly  to 
dispose  of  property  as  had  been  put  forth  in  acquir- 
ing it. 

In  his  tribute  to  his  wife,  Dr.  Pearsons  said: 

"As  I  look  back  on  the  last  twenty-two  years,  I 
realize  that  none  of  my  gifts  would  have  been  possi- 
ble without  my  wife.  It  was  she  who  taught  me 
how  to  make  the  money  and  endued  me  with  the 
spirit  of  philanthropy.  To  her  I  owe  everything, 

251 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

and  my  advice  would  be  to  every  young  man  who 
wants  to  start  on  the  road  to  fortune  and  wealth,  to 
marry." 

The  last  gift  which  Dr.  Pearsons  made  was  in 
some  respects  his  best  gift.  It  was  the  transfer  of 
the  house  in  which  he  had  lived  for  nearly  thirty 
years,  together  with  the  extensive  grounds  by  which 
it  is  surrounded,  to  his  fellow-citizens  in  Hinsdale 
for  a  Library.  It  was  his  first  thought  that  the 
house  could  be  used  for  a  library  building  as  its 
rooms  are  large  and  high,  and  its  foundations  very 
strong.  In  that  case  the  building  in  which  books 
and  pictures  and  objects  of  art  were  stored  would 
have  been  a  perpetual  reminder  of  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Pearsons.  But  as  the  house  is  rather  too  far  from 
the  center  of  the  village  for  easy  access  it  was  deemed 
best  that  the  property  should  be  sold  and  its  pro- 
ceeds devoted  to  library  purposes.  A  suitable  build- 
ing will  be  erected  on  a  central  site  and  the  proceeds 
obtained  from  the  sale  of  the  Pearsons  home  used 
for  the  library  as  the  committee  in  charge  shall 
deem  best.  The  gift  is  highly  appreciated  by  the 
people  of  Hinsdale. 


252 


XVII 
RETROSPECT 


XVII 
RETROSPECT 

NO  ONE  can  deny,  and  Dr.  Pearsons  himself 
cannot  fail  to  recognize  the  fact,  that  his 
life  has  been  a  peculiar  and  a  very  remarkably 
useful  life.  Each  section  of  it  presents  prominent 
characteristics.  Self-denying  efforts  which  devel- 
oped a  strong  will  were  manifest  while  struggling 
for  an  education.  The  half  dozen  years  of  profes- 
sional life,  while  full  of  ambition  for  success  as  a 
physician,  an  ambition  more  than  gratified,  were 
years  in  which  efforts  were  made  to  stimulate  the 
intellectual  and  moral  life  of  the  community  in 
which  he  lived.  Then  came  the  business  period, 
thirty  years  of  it,  from  40  to  70  spent  in  Chicago,  in 
which  the  one  aim  was  to  make  money.  Since 
reaching  three  score  and  ten  the  all  controlling  pur- 
pose has  been  wisely  to  distribute  the  fortune  which 
an  over-ruling  Providence  had  permitted  this  earn- 
est business  man  to  acquire.  Thus  each  period  of 
his  life  has  had  its  ruling  purpose.  In  each  period 
there  has  been  a  clear  and  definite  aim  from  which 
no  deviation  has  been  allowed.  If  it  is  with  the 
last  period  of  this  life  that  the  public  is  most  f amil- 

255 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

iar,  it  is  worth  while  to  remember  that  the  founda- 
tions of  the  character  of  the  man  those  who  know  him 
so  much  honor,  were  laid  in  young  manhood,  strength- 
ened in  professional  and  business  life  and  thus  made 
ready  for  the  superstructure  which  has  been  reared 
upon  them  during  these  later  years. 

Few  men,  however  great  their  anxiety  to  do  so, 
have  had  the  privilege  granted  to  Dr.  Pearsons, 
of  distributing  their  fortune  in  their  own  lifetime. 
Still  more  rare  is  this  privilege  when  that  fortune 
is  counted  by  millions  rather  than  by  thousands, 
and  when  as  much  care  is  exercised  in  its  distribu- 
tion as  was  required  for  its  acquisition.  For  twenty- 
two  years  Dr.  Pearsons  has  devoted  himself  wholly 
to  a  consideration  of  the  needs  of  the  educational 
field  of  America.  True  he  has  given  large  sums 
to  objects  not  generally  classed  as  educational,  yet 
it  will  be  seen  when  closely  scrutinized  that  even 
these  objects  exert  an  educational  influence  on  the 
people.  This  is  certainly  the  case  with  gifts  to  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.,  to  the  Historical  Society,  the  Academy 
of  Science,  the  Orchestra  Association,  the  Art  Insti- 
tute of  Chicago,  and  to  the  Presbyterian  Hospital 
to  which  he  has  made  large  contributions  and  in 
which  he  has  provided  free  beds  for  needy  theologi- 
cal students. 

For  a  man  who  gives  conscientiously,  with  a  sense 
of  responsibility  to  God,  in  comparatively  small 
sums,  and  under  conditions  designed  in  part  to  test 
the  worthiness  of  the  object  to  receive  aid,  the  dis- 
tribution of  a  fortune  of  several  millions  calls  for  a 

256 


RETROSPECT 

great  deal  of  wisdom.  The  difficulty  is  in  placing 
money  where  it  will  really  do  the  most  good,  where 
it  is  most  needed,  even  if  the  results  hoped  for  be 
long  in  appearing.  That  Dr.  Pearsons  has  recog- 
nized this  difficulty  and  has  successfully  met  it, 
not  many  will  deny.  That  some  colleges,  and 
objects  of  charity  worthy  in  themselves,  have  been 
refused  aid  is  true.  But  the  refusal  has  come  from 
no  prejudice  against  them,  but  from  the  conviction 
that  money  would  be  better  invested  elsewhere. 
To  set  aside  these  appeals,  made  as  they  have  been 
by  some  of  the  most  eminent  men  in  the  country, 
has  called  for  a  firmness  of  will  not  many  possess. 
To  give  wisely  is  a  science.  The  principles  of  this 
science  can  be  applied  only  after  careful  study, 
prolonged  meditation,  much  correspondence,  and 
not  a  little  travel.  Dr.  Pearsons  has  never  given 
hastily.  Nor  has  he  spared  himself  the  labor,  men- 
tal and  physical  which  almost  daily  requests  for 
aid  have  made  necessary.  His  years  of  philan- 
thropy have  been  his  busiest  years.  More  difficult 
problems  have  been  presented  to  him  for  solution 
since  he  began  to  dispense  his  fortune,  than  in  all 
the  years  of  his  previous  life.  The  conditions  on 
which  his  gifts  have  been  made  have  called  for  care- 
ful thought  in  nearly  every  instance.  Not  infre- 
quently the  time  granted  for  their  fulfillment  has 
been  extended,  and  sometimes  efforts  have  been 
made  at  his  suggestion  through  the  press  and  by 
individuals  to  create  a  public  sentiment  in  favor  of 
meeting  these  conditions.  Patience,  persistency, 
17  257 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

courage,  hopefulness,  have  not  been  wanting  on 
the  part  of  the  giver,  when  he  saw  that  without  these 
qualities  his  conditions  would  not  be  met.  The 
pledges  he  made  he  looked  upon  as  debts  which  it 
would  be  a  privilege  to  pay.  A  good  example  of 
his  desire  to  have  his  conditions  met  is  furnished  in 
the  history  of  Montpelier  Conference  Seminary. 

Gifts  have  never  been  made  for  the  sake  of  noto- 
riety. If  Dr.  Pearsons  has  been  willing  that  the 
public  should  know  how  much  he  has  given,  and 
under  what  conditions,  it  has  been  from  the  con- 
viction that  men  and  women  of  wealth  would  learn 
through  these  reports  what  he  was  doing,  and  might 
be  led  to  follow  his  example,  and  while  yet  living, 
invest  some  of  their  money  where  it  cannot  fail  to 
be  permanently  useful.  Testimony  has  come  to 
him  again  and  again  that  in  this  respect  his  wishes 
have  been  met.  The  gifts  of  Dr.  Pearsons  have  all 
had  reference  to  the  future  as  well  as  to  the  present. 
A  feeble  college  in  a  field  already  occupied,  or  under 
unfortunate  management  has  appealed  to  him  in 
vain.  In  fashionable  or  money-making  institutions 
he  has  taken  no  interest.  But  no  matter  how  small 
the  college,  if  it  has  been  wisely  managed,  is  well 
located,  has  a  Christian  atmosphere  and  a  reasonable 
promise  of  growth,  he  has  willingly  aided.  For  in 
such  colleges,  strong,  manly,  patriotic,  Christian 
character  can  be  developed.  Absolutely  tolerant, 
one  might  say,  almost  indifferent  so  far  as  denomi- 
nation is  concerned,  Dr.  Pearsons  has  not  felt 
himself  at  liberty  to  aid  a  college  where  the  Bible 

258 


RETROSPECT 

finds  no  place  in  the  curriculum,  or  where  the  pro- 
fessors fail  to  inculcate  the  principles  of  the  New 
Testament  in  their  classrooms. 

A  glance  at  the  list  will  show  the  wisdom  with 
which  he  has  made  his  gifts  to  colleges.  Three  on 
the  western  coast,  Whitman,  Pacific  University, 
Pomona,  are  making  their  influence  felt  in  the  three 
great  states  of  Washington,  Oregon  and  California. 
Mark  well  the  location  of  the  colleges  aided  in  the 
Middle  West,  in  the  region  between  the  Rockies 
and  embracing  Oklahoma.  Special  reasons  have 
called  for  help  for  a  college  in  Michigan,  one  in 
Ohio,  one  in  Massachusetts,  and  for  two  institutions 
in  the  giver's  native  state,  Vermont.  In  the  South, 
institutions  in  the  Carolinas,  Western  Virginia, 
Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Georgia  and  Florida  have 
profited  from  his  benevolence.  In  every  instance 
these  gifts  have  met  pressing  necessities,  and  nearly 
always,  have  not  only  saved  the  college,  but  given 
it  an  impulse  which  has  proved  to  be  the  beginning 
of  a  new  era  in  its  history.  To  scatter  gifts  thus 
widely,  in  proper  sums,  under  conditions  which 
could  be  met  and  which  when  met  would  prove  as 
valuable  as  the  money  secured,  has  called  for  execu- 
tive or  administrative  ability  of  the  highest  order. 

It  may  be  asked,  if  at  the  beginning  of  his  philan- 
thropic career,  Dr.  Pearsons  had  in  mind  the  wide, 
all-embracing  plan  he  has  since  followed.  To  this 
question  a  negative  answer  must  be  returned.  Dr. 
Pearsons  did  not  at  first  realize  the  importance  of 
the  work  he  had  begun.  Its  importance  grew  upon 

259 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

him  year  by  year.  Year  by  year  his  knowledge  of 
the  value  of  Christian  colleges  to  the  country  in- 
creased till  he  finally  saw  that  they  had  filled  a  great 
place  in  its  educational  system,  and  that  with  the 
aid  he  could  give  them  and  secure  for  them,  their 
power  for  good  would  in  the  future  be  far  greater 
than  in  the  past.  But  this  knowledge  came  grad- 
ually. It  came  to  him  as  it  would  come  to  any 
other  man  with  an  open  mind.  He  gave  to  a  single 
college,  not  knowing  that  he  would  ever  give  to 
another  college.  He  gave  because  he  saw  that  his 
gift  was  indispensable,  and  would  do  good.  Then 
he  saw  another  college  as  needy  and  with  promise 
of  usefulness  as  great  as  the  one  he  had  just  assisted. 
Thus  the  field  of  benevolence  opened  before  him 
till  it  extended  from  ocean  to  ocean,  and  from  the 
far  North  to  the  extreme  South. 

With  a  mind  free  from  prejudice  and  a  heart  full 
of  sympathy  for  the  poor  and  ignorant  everywhere, 
it  was  only  natural  that  somewhat  early  in  his 
benevolent  life  his  attention  should  be  called  to  the 
mission  field,  and  that  because  of  the  interest  which 
Mrs.  Pearsons  had  in  foreign  work,  he  himself  should 
be  led  to  consider  its  claims.  It  is  doubtful,  indeed, 
if  he  has  ever  felt  more  satisfaction  in  any  other  gift 
he  has  made  than  in  the  large  sums  he  has  sent  to 
Anatolia  College  in  Turkey.  Once  aroused,  his 
interest  in  the  Christian  training  of  the  youth  in 
Mission  Schools  could  not  fail  to  increase,  till  it 
culminated  in  the  last  great  gift  in  his  power  to 
make,  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the  support 

260 


RETROSPECT 

of  the  institutions  of  learning  under  the  care  of  the 
American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions.  He  now  feels 
that  through  these  gifts  he  is  doing  something  to 
banish  ignorance  and  develop  Christian  character 
in  the  far  East  as  well  as  in  the  United  States  of 
America. 

Following  such  a  plan  of  benevolence  as  his,  it 
would  have  been  impossible  to  prevent  an  expansion 
of  outlook  year  by  year.  Constant  reading,  exten- 
sive travel  in  many  countries,  association  with 
broad-minded,  well-informed,  consecrated  persons 
have  given  Dr.  Pearsons  a  knowledge  of  the  educa- 
tional needs  of  his  own  and  of  other  lands  wider 
and  more  exact  than  most  of  his  friends  suspect. 
His  habit  of  asking  questions  of  those  who  are  able 
to  answer  them  intelligently,  a  strong  memory,  great 
keenness  in  detecting  fraud  or  self-interest  on  the 
part  of  a  visitor,  have  brought  him  a  fund  of  informa- 
tion from  which  he  has  always  been  able  to  draw, 
and  of  which  he  has  never  failed  to  make  good  use. 

Yet  he  says  he  would  not  care  to  go  back  twenty 
years  and  dispense  another  fortune  as  large  as  the 
one  he  has  now  dispensed.  These  years  have  been 
his  busiest  years,  but  they  have  been  the  happiest 
years  of  his  life.  Were  he  to  live  them  over,  he 
could  not  exercise  more  care  in  giving  than  he  has 
done.  He  doubts  if  on  the  whole  he  could  give  to 
better  advantage.  He  sees  great  fields  of  need, 
rare  opportunities  for  the  investment  of  money  in 
the  promotion  of  Christian  education,  but  he  feels 
that  his  special  mission  has  been  accomplished. 

261 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

Others  must  take  up  his  work,  enlarge  it,  perfect 
it.  As  a  pioneer  he  has  led  the  way.  If  the  fields  are 
white  unto  the  harvest  and  the  laborers  few,  he 
believes  the  laborers  will  increase  and  that  the 
time  is  not  far  distant  when  every  poor  boy  and 
girl  who  has  the  wish  will  find  it  possible  to  obtain 
such  an  education  as  may  be  required  for  the  great- 
est usefulness  in  life. 

At  his  advanced  age  Dr.  Pearsons  misses  the 
friends  of  earlier  years.  Sometimes  the  days  are 
lonely.  For  more  than  five  years  he  has  mourned 
the  loss  of  the  counsellor  and  friend  who  for  nearly 
sixty  years  walked  by  his  side.  Her  society  was 
a  perpetual  solace.  Her  advice  was  always  welcome, 
and  to  her  husband's  mind  infallible.  Others,  too, 
whom  he  loved  to  meet  and  with  whom  he  delighted 
to  talk,  have  gone.  Those  to  whom  the  knowledge 
of  what  he  has  done,  would  have  brought  comfort 
and  happiness,  are  no  longer  here.  A  very  lonely 
man  is  left? — far  from  it.  The  thought  of  more 
than  fifty  institutions  with  fully  a  thousand  teachers 
in  them  and  many  thousands  of  students,  constantly 
discharging  their  daily  duties,  brings  with  it  abun- 
dant cheer.  The  life  of  these  institutions  is  to  con- 
tinue, he  says  to  himself,  after  his  has  reached  its 
limit,  their  influence  for  good  is  to  have  no  end. 
Sleepless  nights  are  full  of  precious  memories.  A 
vivid  and  well-trained  imagination  creates  inspiring 
visions  of  the  future.  Now  that  his  task  has  been 
accomplished  he  looks  back  over  his  life,  thinks  of 
it  as  if  his  life  were  the  life  of  another,  is  amazed 


DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS  AT  NINETY 


RETROSPECT 

oftentimes  at  what  he  has  been  permitted  to  do, 
declares  himself  the  happiest  of  men,  and  wishes 
that  every  rich  man  might  know  as  he  knows,  the 
joy  there  is  in  giving. 

Dr.  Pearsons  has  always  taken  the  part  of  the 
common  people.  He  has  lived  near  them  in  thought 
and  affection.  In  all  his  gifts  he  has  sought  their 
interest.  He  has  sympathized  with  men  of  wealth 
also.  His  associations  in  business  have  been  with 
them  chiefly.  He  has  admired  their  enterprise  and 
looked  upon  their  gains  as  legitimate.  With  Social- 
ists he  has  had  no  sympathy  nor  with  reformers  whose 
amunition  for  attack  upon  those  more  fortunate 
than  themselves  in  the  possession  of  this  world's 
goods,  has  been  drawn  from  jealousy  and  misap- 
prehension, and  who  have  not  hesitated  to  accuse 
them  of  almost  every  crime  of  which  one  can  con- 
ceive, yet  his  constant  aim  has  been  to  minister  to 
the  welfare  of  the  people  of  the  poorer  classes.  On 
the  basis  of  justice  and  merit  he  has  sought  to  render 
it  possible  for  poor  boys  and  girls  to  obtain  an  educa- 
tion equal  to  that  open  to  the  children  of  the  rich, 
or  the  well-to-do.  With  people  who  work  with 
their  hands  or  live  on  small  salaries  he  has  been  in 
hearty  sympathy.  He  has  lived  and  felt  as  if  he 
were  a  laboring  man  himself.  To  the  poor  whites 
he  once  said,  "I  was  a  poor  white  myself,  as  poor  as 
any  one  of  you."  But  with  wealth  as  such  he  has 
had  no  quarrel,  only  with  its  use.  By  his  own  exam- 
ple he  has  shown  the  world  how  he  believes  it  may  be 
honestly  acquired  and  in  what  way  its  possessor 

263 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

may  employ  it  for  the  good  of  mankind.  In  no 
case  would  he  have  so  much  given  as  to  remove  or 
lessen  the  necessities  of  toil  and  self-sacrifice  on  the 
part  of  those  who  receive,  but  in  such  a  way  as  to 
render  it  possible  for  them  to  become  fellow- workers 
with  the  man  who  has  entrusted  a  portion  of  his 
wealth  to  their  keeping.  It  is  in  the  laboring  classes 
that  he  has  seen  the  promise  of  the  continued  pros- 
perity of  the  Republic.  From  them  are  to  come 
the  Lincolns  and  the  Garfields  of  the  future,  as  well 
as  the  patriotic  citizens  who  are  the  hope  of  the 
country.  And  they  are  to  be  taught  in  such  schools 
as  Berea,  Drury,  Park,  Piedmont,  Rollins,  Guilford 
and  Middlebury,  to  say  nothing  of  the  other  schools 
he  has  aided.  In  his  daily  meditation,  he  has  put 
himself  by  the  side  of  poor  young  men  and  women 
in  these  schools,  made  them  his  companions,  felt 
the  weight  of  their  burdens  on  his  own  shoulders, 
sought  to  encourage  them  in  their  ambitions  and 
to  assure  them  of  victory  in  their  struggle  with 
ignorance  and  poverty. 

As  a  Christian  man  Dr.  Pearsons  has  not  felt 
inclined  to  make  any  very  large  gifts  to  any  but 
Christian  institutions.  He  has  not  cared  for  denom- 
inationalism.  With  a  broad,  tolerant,  genuinely 
Christian  spirit  he  has  been  satisfied.  A  •  steady 
attendant  at  church  services,  either  at  a  Congrega- 
tional or  a  Presbyterian  Church,  in  full  sympathy 
with  their  methods  of  benevolence,  he  has  yet  felt 
that  his  money  could  be  used  to  better  advantage 
if  confined  for  the  most  part  to  the  educational 

264 


RETROSPECT 

field  than  if  expended  under  the  direction  of  church 
boards.  In  work  among  the  poorer  classes  in  cities 
like  Chicago  he  has  had  genuine  interest.  To  the 
Chicago  City  Missionary  Society  he  has  given  more 
than  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  because  he  has 
believed  in  the  churches  established  by  it,  in  the 
Sunday  schools  and  other  organizations  growing 
out  of  these  churches  as  agencies  for  the  develop- 
ment of  moral  character  for  the  lessening  of  tempta- 
tion, the  diminution  of  crime,  the  developing  of  good 
citizenship  and  stimulating  youth  to  make  the  best 
possible  use  of  their  opportunities. 

In  all  that  he  has  done  he  has  felt  as  if  God  were 
with  him  and  were  guiding  him.  He  has  felt  that 
his  responsibility  was  to  God,  not  to  men,  and  while 
not  indifferent  to  what  men  might  think  of  him, 
has  yet  sought  to  do  what  he  has  believed  God  has 
wished  him  to  do,  what  under  his  blessing  would 
best  promote  the  interests  of  his  kingdom  and  fit 
men  to  live  in  that  kingdom.  He  has  believed  that 
a  man  can  be  what  he  desires  to  be,  that  God  has 
given  him  endowments  and  opportunities  to  use, 
and  that  if  in  early  life,  a  person  is  brought  under 
proper  influences  he  will,  in  all  probability,  become 
a  patriotic  Christian  man,  a  blessing  to  his  genera- 
tion and  to  his  country.  But  the  moving  impulse 
of  this  life  must  be  Christian,  or  the  chances  of  its 
usefulness  in  society  are  greatly  lessened.  Hence 
the  emphasis  which  he  has  laid  upon  Christian 
training,  upon  principle,  duty  and  the  example^  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

265 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

Although  in  his  ninety-second  year  and  with 
growing  infirmities  of  the  flesh,  Dr.  Pearsons  is 
young  in  thought  and  full  of  confidence  in  the  future. 
There  has  never  been  anything  like  pessimism  in 
his  nature.  In  early  life  he  determined  to  succeed. 
In  his  professional  career  he  allowed  no  thoughts 
of  failure  to  hinder  his  progress. 

As  a  business  man,  where  others  predicted  failure 
or  hard  times,  he  saw  prosperity  and  rarely  or  never 
failed  to  reach  it.  Experience  has  taught  him  that 
men  can  be  trusted;  for  this  reason  he  has  been 
willing  to  put  large  sums  of  money  into  the  hands  of 
others  to  invest  for  work  to  be  done  after  he  shall 
have  passed  away.  With  a  breadth  of  vision  and 
a  spirit  of  toleration  that  few  men  so  old  as  he  mani- 
fest, like  one  of  the  old  prophets,  though  with  more 
confidence  than  they  sometimes  exhibited  in  their 
countrymen,  he  sees  the  world  continually  becom- 
ing better,  as  class  after  class  of  well-trained  youth 
pass  out  from  under  the  influence  of  teachers  in  the 
Christian  schools  which  he  has  done  so  much  to 
establish  and  perpetuate.  If  he  has  loved  money 
it  has  not  been  because  he  cared  to  exercise  the 
power  which  its  possession  sometimes  gives,  nor 
because  he  has  taken  pleasure  in  the  luxuries  it 
could  furnish  him,  or  the  woman  who  stood  by  his 
side  in  his  strenuous  years,  and  who  encouraged 
him  as  he  began  the  distribution  of  his  wealth,  but 
because  he  saw  and  felt  that  God  had  given  him 
the  privilege  of  wealth  that  he  might  employ  it  for 
the  benefit  of  those  to  whom  it  had  not  come.  In 

266 


RETROSPECT 

long  wakeful  nights  he  thinks  over  the  history  of 
the  institutions,  whose  financial  distress  he  allevi- 
ated and  in  whose  prosperity  he  has  so  large  a  share, 
and  looking  into  the  future  he  thinks  of  the  contri- 
butions which  the  men  and  women  educated  in 
these  institutions  will  make  to  the  welfare  of  the 
generations  in  which  they  may  live  and  of  the  grati- 
tude many  of  them  will  feel  toward  the  man  who, 
far  back  in  the  history  of  their  college  or  seminary, 
preserved  its  life  and  gave  it  an  impulse  which  has 
made  it  a  power  for  good  in  the  country  and  the 
world.  A  lonely  man  he  cannot  be,  for  bis  mind 
is  filled  with  precious  memories,  and  with  a  feeling 
of  satisfaction  over  the  use  he  has  made  of  his  fac- 
ulties, and  of  the  fortune  which  the  use  of  these  facul- 
ties had  given  him.  He  is  a  happy  man  because  he 
has  thought  not  of  himself  alone  or  chiefly,  but  of 
the  children  of  the  unfortunate,  the  immigrant,  the 
belated  mountaineer,  the  day-laborer,  and  has  made 
it  possible  for  them  to  obtain  an  education;  a  happy 
man,  too,  because  of  his  faith  that  in  a  few  years 
more  he  will  be  again  with  the  wife  of  his  youth,  and 
with  her  review  his  life  on  earth  and  enter  into  the 
service  open  to  them  both  in  heaven. 

Dr.  Pearsons  has  lived  in  his  own  age.  He  has 
never  been  full  of  praise  for  old  times  or  neglectful 
of  present  duties.  He  has  done  with  his  might 
whatever  his  hands  have  found  to  do.  He  has 
believed  that  the  days  in  which  he  has  been  living 
were  the  best  for  him  and  for  his  generation  and  has 
had  complete  confidence  in  a  future  better  than  the 

267 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

present.  But  he  has  done  his  work  in  sympathy 
with  his  time  and  has  entered  into  all  the  enter- 
prises of  that  time  with  enthusiam  and  hope.  He 
has  grown  in  mental  power  with  his  time,  and  having 
had  a  share  in  the  developments  in  every  direction 
of  the  century  in  which  he  has  lived,  has  shown  the 
effect  of  these  developments  in  his  own  enlarged 
visions  and  in  sympathies  which  encircle  the  world. 
With  all  that  has  been  wrought  through  the  discov- 
ery of  steam,  or  electricity  as  applied  to  transporta- 
tion and  the  mechanical  arts,  he  has  been  made 
familiar.  Nor  has  he  allowed  himself  to  doubt  that 
progress  will  be  as  marked  in  all  that  concerns  the 
physical  welfare  of  men  as  well  in  the  twentieth 
century  as  in  the  century  which  has  closed.  With 
the  improvements  in  surgery  and  in  the  treatment 
and  prevention  of  disease  he  has  kept  in  touch. 
Unlike  some  nonagenarians  he  has  had  no  prejudice 
against  the  new  education  or  rather  the  new  methods 
employed  in  education.  If  he  has  believed  in  the 
old,  he  has  not  been  unwilling  to  accept  the  new 
wherever  the  new  has  shown  itself  to  be  better 
than  the  old.  Living  in  the  spirit  of  his  time  he 
has  kept  himself  young  in  spite  of  increasing  years. 
With  the  press  he  has  been  in  hearty  sympathy. 
Not  indifferent  to  its  faults  he  has  found  it  a  con- 
stant helper.  He  has  welcomed  its  representatives. 
He  has  talked  with  them  freely.  They  have  never 
disabused  his  confidence,  have  treated  him  with 
unfailing  courtesy,  and  not  infrequently  have  aided 
him  in  creating  a  sentiment  in  a  given  community 

268 


RETROSPECT 

which  has  brought  success  in  the  effort  to  meet  the 
conditions  which  his  gifts  imposed.  They  have  met 
the  criticisms  which  some  who  would  avoid  personal 
responsibility  have  expressed  of  the  conditions  upon 
which  his  gifts  have  depended.  Personally  indif- 
ferent to  criticism,  he  has  yet  known  that  the 
complete  success  of  that  method  of  giving  which 
he  has  deemed  the  wisest  could  not  be  secured 
without  the  help  of  the  press.  For  the  courtesy 
it  has  extended  to  him  he  has  not  failed  to  express 
his  thanks. 

Who  shall  say  that  a  life  like  this  is  not  worth 
living?  That  in  each  one  of  its  distinct  and  widely 
differing  periods  it  has  not  been  a  useful  life,  bring- 
ing gains  to  its  possessor,  happiness  and  comfort  to 
others?  These  last  years  spent  in  considering  the 
needs  of  others,  and  in  striving  to  meet  them  in  such 
ways  as  will  be  effective  now  and  in  the  future,  how 
rich  they  have  been  through  the  joy  of  giving  and 
the  consciousness  of  rendering  assistance  to  self- 
sacrificing  men  and  women  who  consecrate  them- 
selves to  the  work  of  training  youth  for  high  and 
useful  positions  in  society. 

Enjoying  a  life  prolonged  by  divine  favor  more 
than  two  decades  beyond  the  ordinary  threescore 
and  ten,  these  last  years  have  been  rich  years,  for 
they  have  witnessed  the  execution  of  plans  dimly 
formed  in  early  manhood  but  requiring  time  and 
experience  for  their  realization.  "Tins  ONE  THING 
I  DO,"  forgetting  the  strenuous  efforts  put  forth  in 
the  getting  of  money,  he  has  made  efforts  not  a 

269 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

whit  less  strenuous  in  putting  it  where  it  will  pro- 
duce fruit  in  well-developed  character  in  the  youth 
of  our  own  time  and  of  years  to  come.  With  eye 
undimmed,  interest  in  the  present  unabated,  in  the 
tenth  decade  of  his  earthly  life,  having  invested  his 
millions  where  he  believes  they  will  do  the  most  good 
in  making  Christian  patriots,  Dr.  Pearsons  awaits 
calmly,  and  with  full  confidence  in  the  promises  of 
the  Christian  religion,  the  time  of  his  departure. 
Yet  he  loves  life  and  is  in  no  hurry  to  leave  it. 

Those  who  know  him  best  pray  sincerely  that  he 
may  abide  with  them  till  he  has  celebrated  his 
hundredth  birthday,  their  teacher  and  example  in 
the  principles  of  a  true  and  far-reaching  system  of 
benevolence,  a  friend  whose  advice  is  always  help- 
ful, and  whose  companionship  is  as  inspiring  as  it 
is  delightful. 


270 


INDEX 


INDEX 


A. 


Academy,  Paris,  226. 

Aetna  Life  Insurance   Company, 

22,  45. 

Alfred  the  Great,  170. 
Allerton,  S.  W.,  50. 
American    Board,    224,    231-234, 

250. 
American  Missionary  Association, 

191. 

Amherst  College,  9. 
Anatolia  College,  58,  224-234,  260. 
Andrews,  S.  W.,  117. 
Appleton,  Wis.,  16,  152. 
Armour,  P.  D.,  31. 
Armstrong,  J.  C.,  81,  250. 
Arnold,  I.  N.,  27. 
Ashland,  Wis.,  153. 
Athens,  University  of,  226. 
Atkinson,  G.  H.,  206,  211. 
A  very,  T.  M.,  29. 


B. 

Bacon,  Asa,  71. 

Barrows,  J.  H.,  72. 

Barton,  J.  L.,  225,  231-233,  240, 

251. 

Barton,  W.  E.,  174-175,  212,  249. 
Battle  Creek,  Mich.,  281. 
Beecher,  Jerome,  29,  50. 
Beidler,  Jacob,  29. 
Beloit   College,    12,    62,    131-141, 

161,  240,  246-248,  283-285,  296- 

297. 

Beloit,  Wis.,  11,  241. 
Berea  College,  167-180,  241,  264, 

290,  302. 


Berea,  Ky.,  58,  95,  167,  250. 

Berlin,  University  of,  225. 

Bishop,  Pres.,  120. 

Blackman,  Pres.,  193-195. 

Blair,  C.  M.,  29,  49. 

Blaisdell,  J.  A.,  141,  213-214,  218. 

Blatchford,  E.  W.,  27,  29. 

Boardman,  Prof.,  76. 

Boon,  Pres.,  151. 

Boone,  L.  D.,  29. 

Booth,  Henry,  37-38. 

Boston,  Mass.,  7,  15,  205. 

Bowen  Bros.,  28. 

Bradford  Academy,  6. 

Bradford,  Vt.,  3,  6. 

Bradley,  Gov.,  179,  241. 

Braun  and  Company,  73. 

Briggs,  J.  B.,  53. 

Brigham  Hall.,  Mary,  126. 

Brookline,  Mass.,  7. 

Bross,  William,  29,  32. 

Brown,  Mrs.  T.  B.,  205-206. 

Brutus,  16. 

Buckhannon,  W.  Va.,  187. 

Burritt,  Elihu,  9. 

Butterick,  Wallace.  245. 


C. 


Cabot  Institute,  9. 
California,  University  of,  218. 
Carleton  College,  152,  225. 
Carnegie,  Andrew,   94,   118,   149, 

195,  217-218,  239-240,  247. 
Carnegie  Hall,  169. 
Carpenter,  Philo,  29. 
Carter,  William  H.,  37-38. 
Cedar  Rapids,  la.,  146. 
Chamberlain,  Prof.,  134. 


18 


273 


INDEX 


Chapin,  Deacon  Giles,  9. 

Chapin,  E.  H.,  9. 

Chapin  Hall,  Beloit,  135,  137. 

Chapin  Hall,  Evanston,  102. 

Chapin,  Julia  A.,  57,  102,  223. 

Chapin,  Marietta  A.,  9,  see  also 
Pearsons,  Marietta  Chapin. 

Chapin,  Prof.,  141. 

Chattanooga,  Tenn.,  187. 

Chattanooga,  Tenn.,  University 
of,  187-189. 

Chicopee,  Mass.,  8-10  15,  57. 

Chicago,  111.,  3,  12,  15,  17,  20,  22- 
23;  Art  Institute,  73-74;  busi- 
ness life  in,  37-64;  City  Mis- 
sionary Society,  79-81,  83,  265; 
in  1860,  27-34;  institutions, 
gifts  to,  67-85,  111,  131,  Times, 
30;  Theological  Seminary,  76- 
79;  Tribune,  30;  University  of, 
50;  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  68-71. 

Cincinnati,  O.,  167. 

Claremont,  Cal.,  212,  215,  218. 

Clark,  Alonzo,  8. 

Clark,  Harvey,  206. 

Clark,  Senator,  94. 

Clarkson,  R.  H.,  30. 

Cobb,  S.  B..  50. 

Collyer,  Robert,  29. 

Colorado  College,  148-150,  286. 

Colorado  Springs,  Colo.,  148-149. 

Constantinople,  230. 

Converse,  J.  H.,  94. 

Coe  College,  146. 

Coolbaugh,  W.  F.,  29. 

Cragin,  Pres.,  156. 

Culver,  H.  Z.,  29. 

Curtiss,  Prof.,  76. 

Cushing,  A.  M.,  3. 

Cutter,  Calvin,  15,  152. 


D. 

Dartmouth  College,  6,  206. 
Davis,  N.  S.,  29. 
Davis,  O.  S.,  77,  250 
Deer  Lodge,  Mont.,  151. 
Deering,  William,  31. 
Demorest,  Ga.,  191. 


Deneen,  Gov.,  107,  250. 

Doane  College,  147. 

Doane,  J.  W.,  29 

Dolliver,  Senator,  5. 

Doney,  C.  G.,  187. 

Douglass,  Camp,  28. 

Dox,  Virginia,  200-201. 

Drury  College,  159-163,  243,  264, 

285. 
Dunne,  Father,  30. 


E. 

Eaton  Brothers,  93. 

Eaton,  E.  D.,  132-239,  248. 

Eaton,  Hon.  John,  241. 

Eddy,  T.  M.,  29. 

Education  Society,  212. 

Eells,  Cushing,  206. 

Elgin,  111.,  11. 

Emerson  Hall,   Beloit,   136,   138- 

139. 

Emerson,  Prof.,  136,  138-139,  141. 
Europe,  11. 

Evanston,  111.,  3-4,  101-102. 
Evarts,  W.  M.,  33. 
Everts,  W.  W.,  29. 


F. 


Fairlee,  Vt.,  4. 

Fairmount  College,  147-148. 

Faneuil  Hall,  7. 

Fargo  College,  156-158. 

Fargo,  N.  D.,  156. 

Farwell,  C.  B.,  29. 

Farwell,  J.  V.,  29,  68. 

Fee,  John  G.,  167. 

Ferguson,  Pres.,  213. 

Ferrin,  W.  F.,  207. 

Field,  Marshall,  28,  31. 

Fifield,  Dr.,  173. 

Finney,  Julia  V.,  151. 

Fisk,  Prof.,  76. 

Fisk  University,  168. 

Forest  Grove,  Oreg.,  205-207,  210, 

212. 
Fort  Dodge,  la.,  5. 


274 


INDEX 


French,  Pres.,  154. 

French,  W.  M.  R.,  73. 

Frost,  Pres.,  106. 

Frost,  W.  G.,  170,  172-176,  179- 

180,  250. 

Fuller,  H.  T.,  159,  243. 
Fuller,  M.  W.,  29. 


G. 

Galesburg,  111.,  207. 

Gates,  G.  A.,  213,  218. 

George,  J.  H.,  163. 

Gilbert,  Simeon,  173,  250. 

Grand  Prairie  Seminary,  105-106. 

Grant  University,  188. 

Gray,  C.  O.,  190. 

Gray,  W.  B.  D.,  155. 

Greeley,  Horace,  9. 

Greenville,  East  Tenn.,  189. 

Griggs,  S.  C.,  32. 

Guilford  College,  190-191,  264. 

Guilford,  N.  C.,  190. 


Holden,  L.  E.,  140,  240. 
Holyoke,  Mass.,  4. 
Hopkins,  Henry,  243. 
House,  J.  T.,  192. 
Howard  Hall,  174. 
Hoyne,  Thomas,  55. 
Hubbard,  G.  S.,  27,  29. 
Humphrey,  Z.  M.,  29-30. 
Hurd,  Henry,  37-38. 
Huron  College,  153. 
Huron,  S.  D.,  153-154. 
Hutchinson,  73-74. 


I. 


Idaho,  College  of,  151. 
Illinois  Central  R.  R.,  20,  42. 
Illinois  College,  106. 
Illinois,  University  of,  241. 
Imperial  Law  School,   Constanti- 
nople, 226. 
Ingram  Hall,  152. 
Iowa  College,  213 


H. 

Hale,  W.  E.,  135,  139. 

Halsey,  J.  J.,  104. 

Hamill,  E.  A.,  49,  71-72. 

Harlan,  Justice,  169. 

Harmon,  J.  F.,  106-107. 

Harms,  J.  H.,  183-187. 

Hartford,  Conn.,  22,  45. 

Harvard  Law  School,  4. 

Harvey,  T.  W.,  29. 

Hassam,  Childe,  73. 

Hastings  College,  146. 

"Hawks,  Pa,"  10. 

Heath,  Mayor,  53-55. 

Heinze,  F.  A.,  94. 

Higgins,  V.  H.,  29. 

Hinsdale,  111.,  38,  56-58,  67,  95, 

245,  249,  252. 
Hinsdale  Sanitarium,  249. 
Hitchcock,  A.  N.,  250. 
Hitchcock,  Pres.,  9. 
Hobbs,  L.  L.,  190-191. 
Hoge,  Mrs.  M.  D.,  33. 


J. 

James,  Pres.,  241. 
Janesville,  Wis.,  11,  17,  131. 
Jones,  D.  A.,  49. 
Judd,  N.  B.,  29. 


K. 

Kansas  City,  Mo.,  146,  243. 
Kennedy,  J.  S.,  175. 
Kent,  Aratus,  43,  67. 
Kilbourn,  E.  B.,  248. 
King,  Tuthill,  32. 
Kingfisher  College,  192-193. 
Kingfisher,  Okla.,  192. 
Knox  College,  108-112,  207. 


Lake  Forest  University,  102-105. 
Lancaster,  Pres.,  116. 


275 


INDEX 


Lawrence  University,  16,  152. 

Lebanon,  111.,  106. 

Leiter,  L.  Z.,  28. 

Leland  Stanford  University,  218. 

Lexington,  Ky.,  169. 

Lincoln,  32-33,  169-170. 

Lincoln  Institute,  169. 

Livermore,  Mrs.  Mary,  33. 

Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  215. 

Louisville    and    Nashville  R.   R., 

167. 

Louisville,  Ky.,  169. 
Low,  Seth,  169. 
Lowell,  Pres.,  247. 
Lyon,  Mary,  9-10,  39,  125. 


M. 

Maile,  J.  L.,  200,  202. 

Manual  Labor  School,  7. 

Marietta  College,  117-118. 

Marsh,  James,  206. 

Marsh  Memorial  Hall,  206-207. 

Marsh,  Professor,  206,  211. 

Marsh,  S.  H.,  206. 

Marsovan,  Turkey,  224,  226,  231. 

McAfee,  L.  M.,  145. 

McCagg,  Ezra,  27. 

McClelland,  Pres.,  111-112,  207- 

211. 

McClure,  J.  G.  K,  75, 103,  105. 
McCormick,  C.  H.,  29,  31. 
McCormick,  Mrs.,  94. 
McCormick  Theological  Seminary, 

75. 

McCrea,  S.  H.,  53. 
McKendree  College,  106-108. 
Medill,  Joseph,  30. 
Merrill,  Pres.,  153,  242. 
Messer,  L.  W.,  68,  70. 
Michigan,  Lake,  15. 
Michigan,  University  of,  116. 
Middlebury  College,  122-124,  264. 
Mills,  W.  W.,  117. 
Mitchell,  Arthur,  52. 
Montana.  College  of,  151. 
Montpelier  Conference  Seminary, 

6,  119-122,  258. 
Moody,  C.  B.,  192. 


Merrill  Act,  vii,  90. 
Mt,  Holyoke  College,  10,  124-127, 
291-293,  301,  305. 


N. 

Nashville,  Tenn.,  16, 168. 
Newberry  College,  183-186,  240. 
Newberry,  S.  C.,  183. 
Newberry,  W.  L.,  27. 
Newbury  Seminary,  6,  120. 
New  College,  Edinburgh,  225. 
Newell,  H.  C.,  191. 
New  Haven,  Conn.,  3. 
New  York  City,  3,  8. 
Nixon,  O.  W.,  191,  199-200. 
Noble,  F.  A.,  250. 
Northfield,  Minn.,  152. 
Northland  College,  153. 
Northwestern  University,  101. 


O. 

Oak  Park,  111.,  175. 
Ogden,  M.  D.,  27. 
Ogden,  W.  B.,  27. 
Olivet  College,  115,  283. 
Onarga,  111.,  105. 
Osborne,  Tenn.,  179. 


P. 


Pacific  University,  205-212,  286. 
Page,  Peter,  28. 
Palmer,  Potter,  28. 
Park  College,  145,  264. 
Parker,  Theodore,  9. 
Parkville,  Mo.,  145. 
Pasadena,  Cal.,  172,  215. 
Patterson,  R.  W.,  29,  108. 
Patton,  C.  H.,  224. 
Patton,  W.  W.,  29. 
Paulson,  Dr.,  249-250. 
Pearley,  George  E.,  158. 
Pearsons,  Arthur,  3. 
Pearsons,  Charles,  3. 
Pearsons,  Elizabeth,  3. 


276 


INDEX 


Pearsons,  Daniel  Kimball,  birth 
and  ancestry,  3-6;  early  life  and 
education,  6-8;  95;  marriage,  9; 
practise  in  Chicopee,  8-10; 
decision  to  go  West,  10;  gifts  to 
Beloit,  11-12;  preparation  for 
life  in  Chicago,  15-21;  lectures, 
15-18;  land  agent,  19-23;  life  in 
Chicago,  37-64;  personal  appear- 
ance, 40;  alderman,  53  56; 
advice  to  young  men,  62-63; 
principles  of  giving,  83-85; 
gifts  to  denominational  col- 
leges, 89-97;  to  111.  institutions, 
101-112;  115-127;  to  Beloit, 
131-141;  to  other  Western  Col- 
leges, 145-163;  to  Berea,  167- 
180;  to  other  Southern  Colleges, 
183-195;  to  Pacific  Coast,  199- 
220;  to  Missions,  223-234;  ap- 
preciations of,  239-252;  retro- 
spect, 255-270;  addresses  etc.; 
Appendix,  281-304;  Greeting  of 
Congregational  Club,  305-308. 

Pearsons,  George,  4-5. 

Pearsons,  H.  A.,  45. 

Pearsons,  Hall,  Mrs.  John  A.,  4. 

Pearsons,  Hannah  P.,  5-6. 

Pearsons,  John,  5-6. 

Pearsons,  J.  A.,  3-4. 

Pearsons,  Marietta  C.,  10,  23-24, 
42,  56,  57,  74,  80,  95,  160,  193, 
243,  251,  300,  305,  308.  (See 
also  Chapin,  M.  A.,  and  Pear- 
sons, D.  K.) 

Pearsons-Taft  Land  Credit  Co.,  45. 

Pearsons,  W.  B.  C.,  4. 

Peck,  J.  W.,  32. 

Penrose,  S.  B.  L.,  200-205. 

Penrose,  Mrs.  S.  B.  L.,  203. 

Perry,  Pres.,  147. 

Piedmont  College,  191,  264. 

Plantz,  Pres.,  152. 

Pomona  College,  212-220. 

Porter,  Prof.,  141. 

Portland,  Ore.,  210. 

Presbyterian  Church,  Chicago, 
First,  32,  42,  43,  52,  67-68,  72. 

Presbyterian  Hospital,  49,  71,  256. 

Putnam,  Israel,  6. 


R. 

Race,  J.  H.,  187-189. 

Railroad  Mission,  42,  67. 

Rammelskamp,  Pres.,  106. 

Rankin,  W.  A.,  105. 

Rawlins,  Mr.,  176. 

Raymond,  R.  W.,  29. 

Ripon  College,  152,  242. 

Ripon,  Wis.,  152,  153. 

Rochelle,  111.,  19-20. 

Rockefeller,  J.  D.,  250. 

Rogers,  J.  A.,  178-179. 

Rollins  College,  193-195,  249,  264. 

Roosevelt,  ex-Pres.,  179,  242. 

Rosenberg,  Jacob,  50,  53. 

Ross,  J.  P.,  49,  71. 

Royal     Conservatory    of    Music, 

Stuttgart,  226. 
Ryder,  W.  H.,  29. 


S. 


St.  Louis,  Mo.,  107. 

Samsoun,  Turkey,  230. 

Saulsbury,  Prof.,  134. 

Savage,  G.  S.  F.,  76. 

Scammon,  J.  W.,  32. 

Scherer,  J.  A.  B.,  184,  240. 

Schuttler,  Peter,  29. 

Scott,  Harvey,  208. 

Scott,  Prof.,  76. 

Seward,  W.  H.,  33. 

Sheldon,  E.  H.,  27. 

Sherman,  Speaker,  244. 

Sherwood,  Mr.,  52,  67. 

Skinner,  Judge  M.,  27. 

Slocum,  Pres.,  149. 

Smith,  Dr.  J.  B.  C.,  9. 

Smith,  George,  29. 

Smith,  Solomon,  29,  49. 

South  Hadley,  Mass.,  9. 

South  Side  City  Railway  System, 

44-45,  50. 

Sperry,  Pres.,  115-117. 
Springfield,  111.,  243. 
Springfield,  Mass.,  3,  19. 
Springfield,  Mo.,  162,  243. 
Stephenson,  Isaac,  152. 


277 


INDEX 


Stickney,  E.  H.,  157-158. 
Stone,  Mrs.  Valeria,  89. 
Storrs,  E.  A.,  29. 
Story,  W.  F.,  30. 
Stowell,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  136. 
Strong,  J.  W.,  152. 
Sturgis,  Solomon,  20. 
Sullivan,  Michael,  20. 
Sumner,  C.  B.,  213-220. 
Swift,  G.  A.,  SI,  52,  67. 


T. 

Tabor  College,  146. 
Taft,  O.  B.,  45. 
Taft,  Pres.,  169. 
Thayer,  H.  E.,  148. 
Thomas,  J.  M.,  122-124. 
Thurston,  10. 
Tiffany,  I.  H.,  29. 
Topeka,  Kans.,  147. 
Tracy,  Pres.,  224. 
Troy,  N.  Y.,  9,  124. 
Tualtin  Academy,  206. 


V. 

Vermont  Central  R.  R.,  5. 
Vermont,  Society  of  the  Sons  of, 

51,  63. 
Vermont,  University  of,  206. 


Washburn  College,  147. 

Washburn,  E.  B.,  27. 

Washington  and  Tusculum  Col- 
lege, 189-190. 

Washington,  D.  C.,  199,  242. 

Wesleyan  College,  W.  Va.,  187. 

Wheeler,  E.  P.,  153. 

Wheelock,  Eleazar,  206. 

White,  G.  E.,  224. 

Whitman  College,  199-205,  287- 
289. 

Whitman,  Marcus,  199,  203. 

W7hitman,  Memorial  Building,  203. 

Whitman,  Mrs.  Marcus,  203. 

Wichita,  Kans.,  147-148. 

Willard's  Seminary,  Miss.,  9,  124. 
'  Williams  College,  243. 

Williams,  E.  F.,  251. 

Williston,  A.  L.,  125. 

Wilson,  Gov.  Woodrow,  169-170. 

Wilson,  Gov.,  169. 

Winter  Park,  Fla.,  193,  195. 

Woman's  Board  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions, 58,  223. 

Woman's  Educational  Aid  Asso- 
ciation, 101-102. 

Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Board,  Presbyterian,  76,  223. 

Woodstock,  111.,  178. 

Woodstock,  Vt.,  8. 

Woolley,  Pres.,  126. 

Wooster  University,  240. 

Worcester,  Mass.,  7. 


W. 

Walla  Walla,  Wash.,  199,  205. 
Ward,  Rev.  Joseph,  154. 
Ward,  Mrs.  Joseph,  155. 
Warren,  Pres.,  155-156. 


Y. 

Yale  University,  225. 

Yankton  College,  154-156. 

Yankton,  S.  D.,  154. 

Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Chicago,  68-71,  256. 


278 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX  1 

A  LESSON  IN  PRACTICAL  PHILANTHROPY 

AN  ADRESS  DELIVERED  BY  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS  BEFORE 
THE  Civic -PHILANTHROPIC  CONFERENCE  AT  BATTLE 
CREEK,  MICH.,  OCTOBER  18-23,  1898. 


I  shall  talk  to  you  tonight  in  plain  language.  I  am  about  to 
say  some  things  that  I  have  never  before  mentioned  in  the  pres- 
ence of  an  audience.  In  other  words,  I  propose  to  be  very  frank, 
very  plain.  My  subject  is: — 

"WHAT  TO  Do  WITH  MONEY — How  TO  USE  IT" 

In  order  to  illustrate  my  subject  so  that  you  may  clearly 
understand  it,  I  shall  introduce  several  object  lessons.  I  am 
going  to  take  you  on  a  long  journey  to  see  the  places  where  we 
make  use  of  money.  I  shall  also  bring  in  a  little  history  incident 
to  the  places  we  are  to  visit.  I  shall  be  under  the  necessity  of 
frequently  using  the  pronoun  "I."  An  old  man  has  the  right  to 
make  himself  the  hero  of  every  story  he  tells.  In  the  young 
man  this  would  not  be  admissible,  but  an  old  man,  approaching 
fourscore  years,  has  a  right  to  tell  what  he  has  done.  I  like  to 
hear  old  men  tell  what  they  have  done,  and  I  am  going  to  tell 
you  what  I  have  done,  for  a  particular  object;  not  because  I  am 
proud  of  it  or  vain  about  it,  neither  do  I  pose  as  a  benevolent 
man — remember  that.  I  am  a  thrifty  and  frugal  old  man.  I 
have  labored  nearly  eighty  years  to  make  money,  and  I  have 
made  it,  and  honestly,  too. 

The  statement  may  seem  very  strange  to  you,  that  I  do  not 

281 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

pose  as  a  benevolent  man.  I  have  no  benevolence  in  me,  not 
a  particle.  I  am  the  most  economical,  close-fisted  man  you  ever 
put  your  eyes  on.  You  can  see  it  in  my  face — it  is  there.  I  do 
not  think  I  ever  foolishly  spent  twenty  dollars  in  my  life.  I  never 
went  to  a  theater  but  once  in  my  life,  and  then  I  was  ashamed  of 
myself.  I  never  went  to  a  horse-race,  or  a  football  game,  or  a 
baseball  game,  over  which  our  students  all  over  the  country  are 
making  such  consummate  fools  of  themselves,  and  by  allowing 
which  the  presidents  and  faculties  are  making  idiots  of  them- 
selves. 

I  am  doing  all  that  I  am  doing  on  business  principles.  After 
working  hard  and  practising  rigid  economy  for  seventy  years 
to  lay  up  money,  I  said  to  myself:  "What  am  I  going  to  do  with 
this?  I  can  not  carry  it  out  of  the  world  in  my  dead  hands. 
Coffins  were  not  made  to  carry  money  in.  I  have  got  to  leave  it ; 
that's  the  way  to  look  at  it.  Now,  what  shall  I  do  with  it?" 

I  looked  around  Chicago,  and  helped  to  build  a  hospital; 
helped  two  theological  seminaries  with  three  or  four  hundred 
thousand  dollars;  helped  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
and  the  City  Missionary  Society,  and  other  institutions.  But 
that  did  not  satisfy  me.  I  wanted  to  help  the  poor  boys  and 
girls  of  our  country.  I  wanted  to  lay  up  something  for  them  to 
live  on  while  getting  an  education.  I  had  been  deprived  of  a 
college  education  through  poverty,  and  I  wanted  to  fix  it  so  that 
these  boys  and  girls,  the  sons  and  daughters  of  wage-earners, 
could  have  the  privilege  of  a  college  close  to  them,  so  that  they 
could  get  a  liberal  education. 

For  this  purpose  I  turned  my  attention  to  sixteen  different 
colleges.  I  did  not  start  a  single  one,  and  I  never  will;  we  have 
enough  of  them.  All  we  need  to  do  is  to  build  up  what  we  have. 
There  are  but  two  places  in  America  where  they  have  need  of  a 
college  today, — one  is  Montana  and  the  other  is  Oklahoma,  and 
sometime  they  will  have  them,  too.  We  want  to  make  the  colleges 
we  have  better;  give  them  an  endowment,  so  that  they  can 
enlarge  their  curriculum,  pay  their  teachers,  and  meet  the  exi- 
gencies of  the  time. 

282 


APPENDIX  1 

So  I  looked  around,  and  traveled  some,  too.  Mind  you,  this 
was  business,  no  benevolence  in  it  at  all.  What  shall  I  do  with 
that  money? — Find  places  for  it  where  it  will  elevate,  where  it 
will  be  used  for  God  and  humanity. 

OLIVET  COLLEGE 

Now  I  will  take  you  on  the  journeys  that  I  made.  Let  us 
begin  right  here  in  Michigan.  I  received  a  letter  from  President 
Sperry  of  Olivet  College,  twelve  pages  long.  Sperry  is  a  good 
fellow — what  did  he  say?  That  letter  was  a  declaration  in  equity; 
it  was  a  regular  "leader."  It  ran  about  as  follows: — 

"You  came  into  Michigan  a  few  years  ago,  and  bought  16,000 
acres  of  timber  land,  and  you  paid  for  it.  You  took  that  mag- 
nificent pine  timber  out  of  Michigan,  and  converted  it  into  money, 
and  you  left  nothing  behind  but  the  bare,  white,  sand  dunes, 
that  will  produce  only  such  things  as  choke-cherries.  Timber 
will  never  grow  there  again.  Now  in  equity  return  some  of  that 
money  to  Michigan." 

I  replied:  "You  raise  $75,000  in  Michigan, — you  can  not  go 
all  over  the  world  to  raise  it,  but  raise  it  here  in  Michigan, — and 
I  will  give  you  $25,000,"  and  he  said,  "It  is  a  bargain." 

He  was  in  my  office  the  other  day,  and  said  he  had  it  all  except 
$20,000.  Thus  Olivet  College  is  about  to  stand  up  $100,000 
better  off;  and  with  this  endowment  the  efficiency  of  the  college 
will  be  greatly  increased.  Nothing  will  give  me  more  pleasure 
than  to  make  out  that  check  for  $25,000  for  President  Sperry. 

BELOIT  COLLEGE 

But  before  we  start  out  on  our  long  journey,  let  me,  by  way  of 
reminiscence,  mention  one  incident  from  personal  experience. 
In  1851  my  wife  and  I  took  our  first  trip  to  the  West.  Our  des- 
tination was  Janes ville,  Wis.  We  passed  through  Michigan  on 
a  strap  rail,  and  traveled  to  Elgin,  111.,  which  was  the  terminus 
of  the  railroad,  and  there  we  took  a  muck  wagon  to  our  desti- 
nation, passing  through  Beloit.  We  traveled  through  cold  and 

283 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

mud, — rich  mud,  too, — but  on  reaching  Beloit  found  there  was 
a  river.  Our  horses  had  to  swim  the  river,  and  we  had  to  stand 
on  the  seats  to  get  over.  We  stopped  at  a  little  wooden  tavern 
to  rest.  Beloit  was  but  a  small  hamlet  then.  When  we  started 
on  for  Janesville,  one  of  those  big,  burly  fellows  who  always 
get  into  a  new  country,  climbed  into  the  wagon  for  a  ride. 

As  we  drove  along,  we  saw  a  brick  building  going  up,  and  I 
asked  the  man,  "What  are  they  doing  here?"  "Why,  there  are 
some  Yankee  cranks  building  a  college,"  he  answered.  That 
rather  hit  me.  When  they  call  me  a  Yankee,  I  take  off  my  hat 
and  bow;  and  when  they  call  me  an  old  Puritan,  I  make  three 
bows.  On  the  way  to  Janesville  that  man  cursed  everything  that 
was  good,  and  I  stood  up  for  Christian  education  the  best  I  knew 
how.  When  we  got  to  Janesville,  I  shook  my  fist  in  his  face, 
and  said,  "Old  fellow,  I  am  going  West,  and  in  a  few  years  I  am 
going  to  get  rich,  and  when  I  do,  I  am  going  to  help  lift  up  these 
colleges  that  these  'Yankee  cranks'  are  building  up."  I  had 
my  eye  on  Beloit  at  that  time. 

Time  went  on,  and  my  seventy  years  rolled  by,  and  nine  years 
ago  I  began.  The  first  proposition  I  made  to  Beloit  College 
was  this:  "I  will  give  you  $100,000  if  you  will  raise  $100,000." 
(I  make  everybody  work  a  little,  and  that  is  the  right  way  to 
do  it.)  In  six  weeks  they  raised  that  $100,000,  and  I  had  to 
draw  my  check.  I  was  so  well  pleased,  and  the  institution  was 
such  a  grand  character-building  institution,  that  I  went  to  work 
and  built  them  a  science  hall,  the  finest  in  the  West.  It  cost 
me  $60,000  in  cash.  But  I  wasn't  quite  satisfied  with  that 
so  the  next  year,  seeing  that  the  boys  had  to  pay  from  $3.50 
to  $4  for  their  board,  I  built  them  a  dormitory  costing  $25,000. 
Now  the  boys  can  live  on  $1.50  a  week.  I  wasn't  quite  satisfied 
with  that,  for  they  were  good  fellows.  So  I  said,  "Look  here; 
you  haven't  got  quite  money  enough;  you  want  more  endowment 
you  want  better  professors.  Now  you  raise  $150,000  and  I 
will  give  you  another  $50,000."  So  last  commencement  Presi- 
dent Eaton  stepped  in  and  said,  "Here  is  $150,000  cash, — not 
Kansas  mortgages,  no  sand  dunes,  no  swamp  lands,  but 

284 


APPENDIX  1 

cash."  So  I  gave  him  my  check  for  $50,000,  and  that  closed 
that  deal. 

They  established  coeducation,  and  that  pleased  me.  They 
were  going  to  have  the  girls  come  in,  but  they  had  no  cage  to 
put  them  in.  I  said,  "Get  to  work  and  build  the  finest  building 
you  can  for  seventy-five  girls,  and  be  sure  you  get  a  good  many 
Mary  Lyons  and  Frances  Willards  among  them."  So  I  gave 
them  $30,000  for  a  beautiful  dormitory,  and  it  is  now  occupied 
by  sixty-five  young  ladies.  That  was  a  very  pleasant  thing  to 
do,  and  I  am  rather  proud  of  it.  You  needn't  tell  me  I  am  a  good 
fellow — I  know  I  am. 

Nine  years  ago  there  were  about  sixty  students  in  Beloit  College 
and  about  one  hundred  in  the  academy;  now  they  have  more  than 
eighty  in  the  freshman  class,  and  more  than  two  hundred  each 
in  the  college  and  the  academy.  That  is  the  difference  between 
the  situation  then  and  now. 

DRUBY  COLLEGE 

Now,  let  us  go  down  into  Missouri.  There  is  a  college  down 
there  called  Drury  College,  situated  in  Springfield,  in  the  Ozark 
Mountains.  Missouri  was  a  slave  state  a  few  years  ago,  and  they 
were  not  awake  to  the  subject  of  education.  They  have  waked  up 
now.  Drury  College  was  started  by  a  missionary  named  Drury 
from  Olivet.  They  struggled  along  for  a  few  years,  in  debt, 
begging,  their  teachers  not  paid,  and  all  that.  I  said  to  them 
"You  raise  $150,000  for  endowment  (I  make  all  do  something) 
and  I  will  add  $50,000  to  that  sum."  They  went  to  work,  and 
raised  it  quite  readily.  Now,  the  college  is  full  to  overflowing. 
So  I  told  them  the  other  day:  "You  go  to  work  now  and  put  up 
a  college  building.  Build  a  good  one,  with  some  rooms  for  the 
sciences  separate  from  the  others.  Build  it  to  cost  $50,000. 
You  put  in  $25,000,  and  I  will  cover  it  with  another  $25,000." 
The  president  is  working  on  the  proposition  now. 


285 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 


COLORADO  SPRINGS  COLLEGE 

Now  let  us  travel  one  thousand  miles  to  Colorado  Springs. 
About  thirty  years  ago  I  camped  one  summer  with  the  Ute  In- 
dians, where  there  was  nothing  but  a  little  hamlet.  A  missionary 
started  an  academy  and  college  there,  and  he  worked  and  dug 
and  toiled,  but  they  didn't  get  along  well.  By  and  by  there 
came  along  the  right  fellow,  a  bright,  smart  young  fellow  by  the 
name  of  Slocum,  and  I  had  a  confidence  in  that  young  man.  I 
believed  that  he  could  make  that  college  worth  something.  I 
said  to  him,  "Slocum,  you  raise  $150,000,  and  I  will  pay  you 
$50,000  down."  He  thought  a  while,  and  finally  said  he  couldn't 
do  it.  There  were  rich  men  all  around  there — twelve  million- 
aires on  one  street  in  Colorado  Springs!  What  are  they  saving 
their  money  for? — Saving  it  to  ruin  their  boys  and  girls,  and  carry 
them  to  destruction.  I  said  to  them,  "Work  three  years  if  neces- 
sary, to  raise  $150,000." 

They  sent  me  a  bound  book,  and  in  that  book  there  were  1,000 
names, — the  names  of  all  the  individuals  who  had  contributed 
toward  that  $150,000.  I  have  it  now.  I  always  require  such 
a  list.  And  then  I  required  from  the  three  best  business  men  of 
Colorado  Springs  evidence  that  they  had  raised  the  $150,000, 
and  had  the  money  in  hand.  No  getting  around  it.  Everybody 
must  come  right  up  to  the  business  mark.  Now  what  have 
they? — They  have  a  crowd  of  students.  They  come  three  hun- 
dred miles  with  their  packs  on  their  backs  from  the  mountains 
and  the  plains,  and  they  crowd  in  there,  eager  for  an  education — 
and  they  get  it. 

PACIFIC  UNIVERSITY 

Now,  let  us  go  about  six  hundred  miles  farther.  Let  us  go 
to  the  Pacific  coast,  about  twenty  miles  from  Portland,  to  a 
place  called  Forest  Grove,  where  George  Atkinson,  an  old  school- 
mate of  mine  in  Vermont,  went  fifty  years  ago.  He  traveled 
around  by  Cape  Horn,  and  was  six  months  in  getting  there.  As 

286 


APPENDIX  1 

soon  as  he  was  properly  settled,  he  started  an  academy,  and  in 
a  few  years  a  college,  and  that  has  had  the  same  trouble  all  the 
way  through, — in  debt,  teachers  not  paid,  people  sick  of  being 
begged  for  the  college.  I  wrote  to  President  McLelland  and  said, 
"In  memory  of  George  Atkinson,  my  old  schoolmate,  and  in 
memory  of  Mr.  Marsh,  who  was  president  for  many  years,  and 
died  there,  I  will  give  you  $50,000  if  you  will  raise  $100,000." 
They  undertook  to  erect  a  college  building,  and  they  got  it  about 
so  far  and  then  stopped.  I  said,  "How  much  money  will  it  take 
to  complete  that  building?"  They  replied,  "$15,000."  I 
sent  them  a  check  for  $15,000,  and  they  put  that  building  in  fine 
shape.  They  held  a  jubilee  in  July,  and  I  have  a  detailed  ac- 
count of  what  took  place  there.  They  are  about  the  happiest 
people  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Now  is  that  not  a  good  way  to  use  money?  If  you  can  find 
any  better,  I  should  like  to  have  you  tell  me  about  it.  But  we 
must  hasten  on. 

WHITMAN  COLLEGE 

Let  us  go  three  hundred  miles  east,  and  we  come  to  Walla 
Walla.  What  is  the  history  of  that  college? — Marcus  Whitman, 
one  of  the  greatest  missionaries  and  one  of  the  noblest  men  that 
ever  walked  the  earth,  went  there  in  1842  with  his  wife.  Theirs 
was  the  first  wagon  that  ever  crossed  the  mountains.  They 
settled  there  among  the  Indians.  He  had  an  Indian  school, 
and  it  was  prosperous  and  flourishing.  It  was  no  man's  land 
at  that  time.  No  one  knew  whether  the  British  or  the  Americans 
owned  it.  There  was  a  magnificent  empire  up  there,  compris- 
ing Washington,  Oregon,  and  Idaho,  and  that  shrewd  and  patri- 
otic Marcus  Whitman  saw  that  it  was  a  country  of  great  value, 
with  its  mighty  forests,  its  fertile  plains,  its  lofty  mountains,  its 
mineral  treasures. 

In  the  dead  of  whiter  he,  with  his  pack-mule  and  guide,  traveled 
four  thousand  miles  to  Washington,  D.  C.  When  he  got  there, 
his  hands  and  face  were  frosted,  but  his  head  was  all  right.  He 
went  before  President  Tyler,  and  found  that  Webster  was  about 

287 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

trading  the  whole  country  off  for  some  fisheries  off  the  coast  of 
Nova  Scotia. 

Whitman  said:  "I  am  not  here  for  office;  I  am  here  to  tell  you 
that  that  is  a  magnificent  country,  and  it  belongs  to  the  United 
States,  and  we  must  hold  it." 

"Oh,"  replied  Webster,  "it  can  never  be  settled;  there  is  not 
even  a  wagon  trail." 

"I  have  taken  a  wagon  over  the  mountains,  and  I  took  my  wife 
along  with  me,  so  I  know  what  I  am  talking  about.  I  came  here 
for  the  purpose  of  saving  that  country,"  said  Whitman. 

The  next  spring  he  took  more  than  one  thousand  people  from 
St.  Louis,  Mo.,  and  Illinois,  and  one  thousand  cattle  with  him 
over  the  mountains,  to  settle  in  that  beautiful  country. 

The  enemies  of  civilization  were  jealous  of  that  smart  man, 
and  they  incited  the  Indians  to  kill  him.  They  did  kill  him, 
but  he  left  another  good  missionary  behind — a  man  by  the 
name  of  Eels.  The  best  monument  to  be  erected  to  Marcus 
Whitman  was  to  build  a  college  in  his  name,  and  such  a  college 
was  built,  costing  $16,000,  a  very  ordinary  building. 

After  struggling  along  for  a  few  years,  they  were  completely 
stranded — mortgaged  for  $15,000.  I  had  written  them  that  I 
would  give  them  $50,000  if  they  would  raise  $150,000.  They 
did  not  make  a  move.  A  man  came  into  my  office  one  day,  and 
said  his  name  was  Penrose,  the  president  of  Whitman  College. 
He  said  they  were  $13,500  in  debt,  and  that  there  was  a  mortgage 
on  the  building,  and  that  he  didn't  see  how  it  was  possible  for 
them  to  raise  $150,000.  "And,"  said  he,  "we  can't  live  without 
it."  I  then  sat  down  and  wrote  a  check  for  $13,500.  "Now," 
said  I,  "send  that  out  and  pay  the  teachers  and  clean  it  all  up." 

That  was  four  years  ago  last  June.  They  had  then  about 
forty  pupils.  Now  what  are  they  doing? — They  have  ten  capa- 
ble young  men  who  are  professors.  They  have  one  young  man, 
a  professor  of  elocution  and  oratory,  who  eight  years  ago  was  a 
sheep-herder  on  the  plains  of  Utah.  His  father  and  mother  were 
Mormons.  He  came  to  Illinois  and  educated  himself,  and  took 
the  first  prize  in  the  interstate  oratorical  contest,  a  $100  prize. 


APPENDIX  1 

You  will  also  be  glad  to  know  that  they  have  the  $200,000 
endowment,  and  are  getting  seven  per  cent,  for  it  there.  They 
have  gathered  in  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  young  men  and 
women,  some  from  Idaho  and  some  from  Montana.  Yet  they 
are  poor,  they  must  be  educated,  and  they  must  have  a  home 
where  they  can  live  very  cheaply.  I  believe  students  can  live, 
with  a  good  dormitory,  on  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  week,  or  about 
that  amount.  Yet  they  need  more  buildings.  The  good  people 
of  Washington  built  a  monument  of  granite  to  Marcus  Whitman 
on  the  ground  where  they  buried  him.  Now  I  propose  to  build  a 
monument.  I  shall  put  up  a  building  180  feet  long  and  60  feet 
wide,  and  two  stories  high,  with  all  the  appliances  and  appur- 
tenances of  a  first-class  college,  as  a  monument  to  Marcus  Whit- 
man. Now,  do  not  suppose  I  am  going  to  build  that  building 
without  those  rich  fellows  out  there  doing  something.  They 
have  got  to  contribute.  The  condition  is  that  they  must  build 
the  dormitory  for  these  poor  boys  who  come  in  from  the  moun- 
tains and  plains,  where  they  can  live  cheaply,  and  they  must 
do  this  before  I  begin  the  monument.  And  they  will  do  it,  for 
they  have  noble  men  and  women  in  that  fair  State,  and  it  is  going 
to  add  five  per  cent,  of  value  to  every  acre  of  property  to  have 
that  monument  right  there  in  the  center  of  Walla  Walla.  Now, 
do  you  suppose  I  am  going  to  let  those  rich  old  fellows  hug  their 
money,  and  let  the  poor  boys  and  girls  starve  while  acquiring 
an  education? — No;  they  must  do  their  part  and  become  the 
constituency  of  the  college. 

I  should  like  to  say  a  great  deal  more  about  Whitman  College. 
I  like  it.  I  like  it  because  it  is  educating  a  class  of  boys  and  girls 
who  could  not  be  educated  without  it.  They  could  not  get  the 
money  to  go  off  to  college,  so  they  need  it  right  there.  These  boys 
and  girls  are  going  to  be  the  bone  and  sinew  of  America  by  and  by. 

If  you  would  know  more  of  this  old  Christian  hero,  Marcus 
Whitman,  and  the  grand  work  he  did  for  the  cause  of  Christian- 
ity and  patriotism,  read  Dr.  Nixon's  book,  "How  Marcus  Whit- 
man Saved  Oregon."  It  will  incite  and  encourage  young  Ameri- 
cans along  the  best  lines  of  thought. 

19  289 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K  PEARSONS 


BEREA  COLLEGE 

Now  let  us  go  down  to  Berea,  Ky.,  among  the  foothills  of  the 
Cumberland  Mountains.  In  this  region  of  the  South  there  are 
five  or  six  million  mountain  whites,  of  Scotch-Irish  blood, — grand, 
good  blood, — noble  men  and  women,  although  ignorant,  with  large 
families  of  children  growing  up  in  ignorance  and  idleness.  Berea 
College  was  started  many  years  ago.  I  went  down  there  to  the 
commencement  four  years  ago,  and  was  never  so  much  interested 
in  all  my  life;  I  will  guarantee  that  there  were  three  thousand 
horses  hitched  on  the  campus,  and  five  thousand  people  there 
from  the  mountains.  They  are  mountain  whites — I  am  a  moun- 
tain white,  and  I  was  once  as  poor  as  they  are,  and  as  ignorant. 
I  am  from  the  mountains  away  up  in  Vermont,  where  they  have 
to  shovel  snow  about  five  months  in  the  year. 

When  I  announced  that  I  would  give  them  $50,000  if  they  would 
raise  $150,000,  I  never  saw  anything  like  it.  Those  old  moun- 
taineers wept,  they  were  so  happy. 

There  is  something  to  these  hardy  old  mountaineers.  Do  you 
know  that  they  turned  the  tide  of  battle  in  the  Civil  War? 
They  stood  like  a  wall  of  adamant,  in  the  midst  of  the  conflict 
between  the  North  and  the  South,  and  all  their  sympathy  and 
bravery  were  on  the  side  of  the  North.  Do  you  know  that  the 
men  who  planted  the  flag  on  Lookout  Mountain  were  these 
very  mountaineers?  They  were.  They  are  brave  people. 

SCHOOLS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

I  took  a  trip  last  winter  to  Asheville,  N.  C.,  and  looked  over  the 
educational  situation  in  the  South.  I  want  to  tell  you  something, 
and  I  would  tell  Mason  if  he  were  here.  The  colored  people 
of  the  South  today  are  better  cared  for  in  the  matter  of  edu- 
cation than  are  the  mountain  whites.  They  have  excellent 
schools,  and  they  are  making  great  progress.  And  now  I  will 
tell  you  one  thing  more,  and  that  is  that  during  the  next  twenty 
years  you  will  hear  appeals  for  the  mountain  whites  of  Kentucky 

290 


APPENDIX  1 

and  Virginia  ringing  out  from  the  pulpit  and  the  press.  They 
deserve  an  education.  They  deserve  much  from  us  for  whom 
they  have  done  so  much.  This  is  a  subject  that  is  going  to  be 
agitated  for  the  next  twenty  years,  and  I  am  going  to  do  all  I 
can  for  those  brave  mountaineers. 

But  let  us  not  lose  sight  of  that  endowment  for  Berea  College. 
I  got  a  letter  from  President  Frost  the  other  day,  and  he  said 
"I  now  have  within  $20,000  of  the  $150,000."  He  is  going  to  get 
that,  and  I  am  going  to  give  him  a  check  for  $50,000  about  the 
1st  of  January.  He  is  going  to  get  it,  because  those  old  anti- 
slavery  men  are  not  all  dead,  and  they  have  money  to  put  in 
that  very  institution  that  is  equally  for  the  mountain  whites 
and  the  blacks  together. 

MOUNT  HOLYOKE  COLLEGE 

Let  us  now  journey  to  the  northeast  a  thousand  miles.  I  am 
only  going  to  speak  of  one  more  of  the  sixteen  colleges  in  which 
I  am  personally  interested.  These  are  samples,  and  the  rest  are 
like  them. 

We  are  now  to  stop  at  a  beautiful  place,  Mount  Holyoke, 
Mass.  Here  was  founded  the  first  female  college  ever  erected 
in  this  country,  one  that  has  done  more  good  and  had  a  wider 
influence  in  the  world  than  any  other  like  institution  under  the 
sun.  Holyoke  has  circled  the  globe  with  women's  colleges. 

About  a  hundred  years  ago,  Mary  Lyon  was  born  in  an  obscure 
town  in  Western  Massachusetts,  of  poor  parents.  Most  men  and 
women  of  worth  and  influence  come  from  poor  parents, — from 
wage-earners,  from  poverty.  Poverty  is  a  blessing  in  disguise. 
Standing  here  today,  I  am  thankful  that  I  was  born  in  poverty, 
and  that  I  had  to  hustle,  while  the  chilly  winds  of  adversity  blew 
around  me. 

Hustle — that  is  what  makes  men.  It  is  not  pampering  them. 
Take  two  dogs  that  are  brothers,  and  put  one  in  a  rich  man's 
family,  where  he  has  a  soft  cushion  to  lie  on,  and  is  fed  highly 
seasoned  food.  That  dog  grows  up  a  great  big  lumber-headed 
dog  with  a  cirrhotic  liver.  The  other  dog  is  given  to  a  poor 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

boy  over  in  Podunk.  There  are  a  lot  of  boys  in  that  family, 
and  every  boy  gives  the  dog  a  kick.  That  dog  grows  up  a  splen- 
did dog,  with  good  muscle  and  a  good  eye,  and  is  able  to  take 
care  of  himself.  Now  bring  him  alongside  of  his  brother  raised 
in  luxury,  and  he  will  lick  him.  That  dog  raised  in  Podunk 
can  lick  a  dozen  dogs  like  his  brother.  The  pampered  dog  is  good 
for  nothing,  while  the  dog  that  had  to  fight  for  an  existence  is 
a  splendid  specimen. 

Just  so  it  is  with  boys.  Put  two  boys  in  equally  different 
environments,  and  one  will  turn  out  smart,  for  he  has  had  to 
hustle;  while  the  other,  if  he  is  fed  well  and  coddled,  may  be  a 
good-natured  fellow,  but  that  is  about  all. 

You  might  ask  the  question,  "Are  there  not  too  many  colleges, 
too  many  men  going  to  college?" — No,  there  are  not  too  many 
colleges,  nor  too  many  men  going  to  college,  nor  too  many  women 
either. 

Mary  Lyon's  parents  died,  and  she  was  left  alone.  She  then 
did  housework  for  her  brother,  who  lived  on  a  farm.  She  spun 
and  wove  and  made  coverlets  and  sold  them,  and  got  enough 
to  go  to  Ashfield  Academy.  That  girl  had  visions,  but  she 
was  not  visionary — not  a  bit  of  it.  She  saw  through  the  mist 
and  clouds  that  overhung  the  grandest  country  in  the  world, 
and  the  noblest  people  in  the  world.  The  mist  was  that  a  female 
should  not  be  educated.  I  knew  Mary  Lyon;  I  saw  her  at  work 
laying  the  first  foundation  of  her  magnificent  institution.  I 
once  asked  an  old  man  why  he  did  not  help  Mary  Lyon.  "Why," 
said  the  old  man,  "it  is  of  no  use  sending  girls  to  college,  it  will 
spoil  them  for  servants;  they  won't  be  worth  a  cent  for  servants 
if  they  go  to  school." 

That  darkness,  that  mist,  hung  over  New  England  like  a  pall, 
and  Mary  Lyon  was  the  heroine  who  could  look  through  it  and 
see  the  stars  beyond.  This  century  has  not  produced  another 
woman  like  Mary  Lyon.  There  have  been  many  great  women, 
but  Mary  Lyon  stood  far  above  them  all.  What  did  she  want? — 
She  wanted  an  institution  where  the  daughters  of  poor  men  could 
get  an  education  on  a  very  small  amount  of  money.  She  went  to 

292 


APPENDIX  1 

work.  She  begged  the  lumber  and  the  brick.  She  went  among 
the  farmers.  I  was  practising  medicine  within  five  miles  of  her, 
and  I  used  to  meet  her  in  her  travels  around,  and  sometimes 
she  was  disheartened,  and  although  I  was  poor  as  Job's  turkey 
then,  I  said  to  myself:  "If  I  ever  get  anything  ahead  in  the  world, 
the  first  thing  I  take  up  will  be  such  work  as  Mary  Lyon  is  doing." 

Mary  Lyon  is  dead,  but  the  college  she  founded  still  lives. 
They  were  without  any  endowment  four  years  ago,  and  I  wrote 
them,  "I  will  give  you  $50,000  if  you  will  raise  $150,000,"  and 
they  went  to  work  and  got  half  of  it.  Two  years  ago  last 
September  that  building  that  Mary  Lyon  built  to  accommodate 
four  hundred  girls  took  fire  and  burned  up,  turning  the  girls 
into  the  street.  Out  of  those  four  hundred  girls  only  five  went 
home.  The  farmers  and  the  people  there  said,  "We  will  take 
care  of  you,"  and  they  did  take  care  of  them,  and  they  kept  the 
school  intact. 

That  building  was  consumed,  and  while  its  embers  were  still 
red -hot,  I  telegraphed  to  Williston,  the  Treasurer:  "Fifty  thou- 
sand dollars  to  build  up  Mount  Holyoke."  What  a  turn  that  was ! 
They  had  sunk  into  despair  and  despondency ,when  all  at  once 
light  flashed  upon  them.  That  was  the  old  institution  founded 
by  Mary  Lyon,  and  it  has  risen  again.  Now,  Holyoke  has  five 
of  the  finest  dormitories  in  the  country,  and  the  most  magnifi- 
cent administration  building  as  a  memorial  of  Mary  Lyon.  I 
got  a  letter  today  from  the  treasurer,  saying,  "We  are  now 
going  to  have,  in  addition  to  the  building,  a  new  gymnasium." 
At  the  last  commencement  I  sent  my  check,  and  they  have  now 
$200,000.  They  are  going  to  be  the  best  and  the  grandest 
institution  in  this  country. 

I  have  tried  to  illustrate  my  subject,  "What  to  Do  with 
Money."  I  have  given  you  a  few  pages  of  personal  history  to 
show  you  what  one  man  of  long  experience  believes  is  the  right 
way  to  use  money.  I  have  faith  in  this  method  of  doing  good. 
I  shall  continue  to  prove  my  faith  by  my  works.  I  hope  many 
will  do  likewise. 


293 


APPENDIX  2 

ADDRESS  TO  THE  PUBLIC  BY  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS, 
ON  HIS  NINETY-FIRST  BIRTHDAY 

From  The  Tribune  of  April  15, 1911 

It  has  seemed  to  some  of  my  friends  that  I  ought  not  to  retire 
from  activity  without  publishing  some  statement  of  the  work  I 
have  attempted  and  my  purpose  henceforth. 

One  year  ago,  on  my  ninetieth  birthday,  I  made  or  renewed 
conditional  pledges  aggregating  approximately  $300,000,  limited 
in  time  to  one  year.  At  that  time  I  made  a  statement  that  these 
were  my  last  pledges,  and  that  when  they  were  fully  paid  I  should 
retire  from  the  field  of  public  service  and  seek  that  quiet  which  has 
been  denied  me  in  recent  years. 

The  conditions  of  my  gifts  have  practically  all  been  met.  I 
lie  down  to  sleep  tonight,  free  from  debt.  I  owe  no  man  any- 
thing, and  no  college,  institution,  or  individual  has  any  outstand- 
ing claim  against  me.  This  is  a  great  relief,  and  it  is  to  be  per- 
manent. Henceforth  I  make  no  pledges  and  no  gifts.  I  have 
given  practically  $5,000,000  to  various  charities.  These  gifts 
resulted  in  the  raising  of  at  least  $10,000,000  more.  This  is  the 
end. 

HAS  No  MORE  MONEY  TO  GIVE  AWAY 

I  wish  to  make  this  very  emphatic.  I  want  all  my  friends  to 
help  me  to  make  it  perfectly  plain.  I  will  receive  no  more  solici- 
tors and  will  read  no  more  letters  soliciting  gifts.  What  money  I 
now  have  is  fully  provided  for.  I  have  no  more  money  to  give 
away. 

294 


APPENDIX  2 

I  must  ask  relief  and  insist  upon  it.  This  is  the  announcement 
I  wish  to  make  upon  my  ninety-first  birthday. 

The  promises  which  I  made  a  year  ago  I  have  kept.  I 
have  no  more  money  to  be  given  away.  Please  stop  writing 
me  letters  which  I  cannot  read  nor  answer.  They  burden 
me,  and  must  disappoint  the  writers. 

But  I  cannot  terminate  so  active  and  interesting  a  career  without 
a  further  word  concerning  the  experiences  of  these  ninety-one 
years,  and  especially  the  last  twenty-two,  which  have  been  devo- 
ted exclusively  to  what  my  friends  have  been  pleased  to  call 
' '  philanthropies . ' ' 

I  used  to  deny  that  I  was  a  philanthropist.  I  was  accustomed 
to  say  that  I  had  no  benevolence  in  me.  But  if  philanthropy 
means  loving  one's  fellow-men,  then  perhaps  I  am  entitled  to  the 
term.  But  I  still  maintain  that  if  I  had  chosen  my  course  with  a 
simple  view  to  selfish  pleasure,  I  could  not  have  chosen  better 
than  I  did,  for  these  twenty-two  years  have  been  years  of  constant 
joy.  I  had  a  good  time  making  my  money,  but  have  had  a  better 
time  spending  it. 

NEVER  CARED  TO  WASTE  MONEY 

I  have  never  denied  myself  anything  that  I  have  needed  or 
greatly  cared  for.  If  I  have  been  criticised,  it  has  been  because 
I  did  not  spend  money  for  things  I  did  not  want.  I  have  had  all 
the  food  I  needed  and  all  the  clothes  that  I  could  wear.  I  have 
had  a  good  home,  good  books,  and  every  reasonable  comfort. 

I  never  cared  for  theaters.  I  never  went  to  but  one,  and  then  I 
was  ashamed  of  myself.  I  never  went  to  a  horse  race  or  a  foot- 
ball game.  I  have  not  cared  to  waste  my  money  on  things  that 
would  only  increase  my  responsibility  and  cause  me  discomfort. 
I  have  not  cared  to  hoard  money  for  people  to  quarrel  over  after 
I  was  dead. 

If  I  had  chosen  selfishly  I  could  have  chosen  nothing  more 
pleasant  than  that  which  I  have  chosen.  This  is  what  I  have 
meant  when  I  have  said  I  am  not  a  philanthropist.  This  was  my 
meaning  when  I  called  myself  a  close-fisted  old  man. 

295 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

And  yet  I  want  to  make  a  confession.  This  course  which  I 
chose  for  myself  has  been  an  education  to  me.  I  did  not  map  it  all 
out  in  advance.  I  blundered  into  it,  and  I  must  say  with  some 
satisfaction  that  I  have  blundered  to  very  good  advantage. 

VALUABLE  LESSONS  LEARNED 

I  do  not  regret  any  of  the  blunders  I  have  made,  but  these 
twenty-two  years  have  been  years  of  growth  in  method,  years  in 
which  I  have  learned  valuable  lessons  in  the  distribution  of 
wealth.  I  do  not  want  to  live  them  over.  I  do  not  want  my 
money  back  to  give  it  away  again. 

But  I  have  learned  a  great  deal  which  I  did  not  know  when  I 
began.  I  am  something  more  of  a  philanthropist  now  than  I  was 
when  I  began.  I  have  a  better  understanding  of  the  use  of 
these  gifts  and  a  better  idea  of  the  use  which  they  will  be  to  the 
world. 

My  friends  used  to  talk  to  me  about  the  good  I  was  doing,  and 
I  laughed  at  them  and  said: 

"I  am  just  an  economical  old  man  investing  my  money  in  the 
most  careful  way  I  know  how." 

But  I  have  begun  to  think  my  friends  were  right.  I  see  in  the 
more  than  forty  colleges  which  I  have  helped  a  wider  range  of 
usefulness  than  I  ever  dreamed  of  when  I  began  this  work. 

RECALLS  THE  PIONEER  DAYS 

I  did  not  begin  with  a  ready  made  plan.  In  1851  my  wife  and 
I  took  our  first  trip  to  the  west.  Our  destination  was  Janesville. 
Wis.,  and  we  passed  through  Elgin,  which  was  then  the  terminus 
of  the  railroad.  From  there  we  took  wagons  to  our  destination, 
passing  through  Beloit.  We  passed  through  a  good  deal  of  mud, 
and  it  was  rich  mud.  When  we  reached  Beloit  we  had  to  ford  the 
Rock  River,  and  our  horses  swam  the  river.  We  had  to  stand  up 
on  the  seats  to  keep  our  feet  from  getting  wet.  We  stopped  at  a 
little  tavern  to  rest.  Beloit  was  a  small  hamlet. 

When  we  started  on  a  big  burly  fellow  climbed  into  the  wagon 

296 


APPENDIX  2 

for  a  ride.    I  noticed  a  brick  building  going  up  and  asked  him 

what  was  being  done.     He  answered: 

"There  are  some  Yankee  cranks  building  a  college/* 

That  interested  me,  for  I  was  just  out  of  New  England  and  a 

thorough  Yankee  and  proud  of  it.     If  anybody  calls  me  a  Yankee, 

I  take  off  my  hat  and  bow.    If  he  calls  me  an  "old  Puritan"  I 

make  three  bows. 

RECORDS  AN  EARLY  Vow 

On  the  way  to  Janesville  that  man  cursed  everything  that  was 
good.  I  tried  to  argue  with  him  and  to  stand  up  for  a  Christian 
education  the  best  I  knew  how.  When  we  got  to  Janesville  I 
shook  my  fist  in  his  face  and  I  said:  "Young  man,  I  am  going 
west,  and  I  am  going  to  get  rich,  and  when  I  do  I  am  coming  back 
to  lift  up  these  colleges  that  Yankee  cranks  are  founding." 

I  prospered  in  the  new  country  to  which  I  had  come.  I  gave  up 
for  a  time  my  vision  of  being  a  philanthropist,  and  devoted  myself 
to  getting  money.  Other  men  trusted  me  with  their  investments 
and  the  money  I  invested  for  them  proved  profitable  for  them  and 
for  me.  For  a  great  many  years  my  money  was  tied  up  in  active 
business  propositions.  I  lived  modestly,  but  well.  I  drove  hard 
bargains,  but  I  never  drove  a  dishonest  one. 

On  the  approach  of  my  seventieth  birthday  my  eye  was  not 
dim  nor  my  natural  force  abated.  I  retired  from  active  business 
life.  I  placed  my  investments  where  they  would  require  little  of 
my  time  or  attention;  all  the  time  I  remembered  my  talk  with  the 
man  about  the  little  college  in  Beloit. 

A  former  resident  of  Beloit  was  a  relative  of  my  wife  and  I 
started  there.  I  went  to  Beloit  College  on  commencement  day. 
Not  many  people  knew  me.  I  sat  on  the  platform.  I  never  had 
been  regarded  as  a  speechmaker,  but  the  time  came  for  me  to 
make  a  speech.  I  stood  up  and  said:  "I  will  give  Beloit  college 
$100,000  if  the  college  will  raise  $100,000  additional."  That  was 
the  beginning  of  my  oratory  and  it  was  a  success. 


297 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

RAISING  DOLLAR  FOR  DOLLAR 

Then  I  found  out  this :  That  colleges  could  raise  more  than  dol- 
lar for  dollar,  and  that  it  was  to  their  advantage  to  do  it.  Gener- 
ally they  could  raise  three  dollars  for  one,  among  their  friends. 
People  often  asked  me:  "Why  do  you  not  give  your  money  out- 
right? Why  do  you  compel  colleges  to  raise  money  to  meet  your 
pledges?"  My  answer  is,  "Because  I  have  tried  that  way  and 
it  works  well." 

In  the  first  place  it  tests  the  college  and  shows  whether  it  has 
any  natural  constituency  of  its  own.  In  the  next  place  it  rallies 
its  friends  to  the  support  of  the  college,  and  it  makes  for  it  new 
friends.  In  the  third  place,  it  keeps  my  gift  from  stopping  some 
other  man's  gift,  and  compels  the  other  gift  to  be  made.  Finally, 
it  multiplies  my  gift  by  two,  or  three,  or  four. 

It  has  made  my  $5,000,000  yield  $15,000,000.  It  makes  three 
blades  of  grass  grow  where  there  had  been  one.  I  have  not 
always  insisted  on  the  same  proportion.  Sometimes  I  have 
accepted  dollar  for  dollar. 

Other  times  I  have  taken  two  to  one,  and  still  more  frequently 
three  to  one.  Repeatedly  I  have  offered  $50,000  to  a  college  if 
it  would  raise  $150,000  additional.  Sometimes  they  have  thought 
me  a  little  hard-hearted  in  the  conditions  I  made,  but  I  thought  I 
was  doing  right.  I  compelled  them  to  make  friends,  and  com- 
pelled their  friends  to  prove  their  friendship. 

EYE  ON  COLLEGE  FINANCES 

I  did  more  than  this.  I  kept  a  financial  report  of  practically 
every  college  in  the  country.  I  studied  these  reports.  I  knew 
which  colleges  had  been  careless  in  the  investment  of  their  endow- 
ments. I  knew  which  colleges  had  borrowed  from  one  fund  to 
help  out  another.  When  they  came  to  me  for  help  I  told  them 
they  had  been  dishonest. 

I  talked  to  them  in  plain  language.  They  did  not  like  it  very 
well,  but  they  went  home  and  adopted  a  new  system  of  book* 

298 


APPENDIX  2 

keeping.  They  separated  their  current  expense  money  from  their 
endowment  money.  They  employed  competent  auditors  to  go 
over  their  accounts.  They  used  new  balance  sheets,  with  certifi- 
cates sworn  to  by  good  public  accountants. 

I  compelled  them  to  become  business-like.  I  believe  this  thing 
itself  was  a  larger  gift  to  the  colleges  than  all  the  money  I  could 
give  them.  The  day  of  hit  or  miss  bookkeeping  in  college  offices 
has  gone  by,  and  I  was  able  to  push  it  a  little  as  it  was  going. 

Naturally  they  thought  me  hard-hearted  in  all  this.  Some- 
times they  said  that  I  was  not  very  ladylike  in  my  language  to 
them.  If  a  board  of  trustees  took  endowment  to  pay  current 
expenses,  and  then  sent  a  committee  to  me  to  ask  me  to  make  it 
up,  and  I  told  them  they  ought  to  be  in  jail,  they  thought  I  was 
not  very  ladylike. 

SHOW  CLEAN  BALANCE  SHEETS 

But  they  hustled  around  among  their  friends  and  got  money  to 
replace  what  had  been  taken,  and  started  in  a  new  method.  And 
a  year  or  two  later  they  would  come  to  me  and  show  a  clean 
balance  sheet:  then  I  would  say: 

"  Gentlemen,  you  have  done  very  well.  Your  funds  are  in  good 
condition,  but  you  need  more.  I  will  give  $50,000  if  you  will  raise 
$150,000  more." 

Then  they  would  go  out  and  raise  it,  and  when  they  had  got  it 
raised  they  would  go  out  and  invest  it. 

The  average  board  of  trustees  is  a  safer,  more  business-like  body 
than  it  was  twenty-two  years  ago.  The  average  college  treasurer 
is  a  much  more  business-like  man.  I  know  this,  for  I  have 
watched  it,  and  in  part  I  have  caused  it.  I  simply  made  up  my 
mind  not  to  give  my  money  where  it  was  going  to  be  frittered 
away.  And  this  policy  bore  fruit. 

I  have  given  some  money  to  educational  work  through  the 
American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions.  I 
began  this  through  the  interest  of  my  wife  in  this  work.  The 
first  guests  we  had  in  our  home  were  some  Chinese  from  a  Sunday- 

299 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

school  class  in  which  she  was  interested.     The  first  foreign  mis- 
sion gift  that  we  made  was  to  Dr.  Tracy  of  Turkey  for  his  college. 

HELPING  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

I  have  not  felt  called  upon  to  give  money  to  the  general  work 
of  foreign  missions.  My  field  has  been  the  field  of  education. 
But  when  the  American  board  undertook  to  raise  $2,000,000  for 
endowment  of  its  foreign  missionary  colleges,  I  believed  that  to 
be  directly  in  line  with  my  work.  I  believed  that  whatever 
money  I  gave  there  would  be  well  invested  and  rightly  used. 
One  of  the  things  I  am  going  to  do  now  is  to  give  $100,000  to 
this  cause.  It  is  a  gift  that  I  am  proud  to  make. 

I  have  given  $1,000,000  to  the  city  of  Chicago.  That  is  where 
I  made  my  money.  But  Chicago  does  not  need  money  for  small 
colleges,  so  I  have  given  money  to  the  City  Missionary  Society, 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  and  Chicago  Theological 
Seminary,  to  the  Presbyterian  Hospital,  and  other  agencies  which 
I  believe  to  be  most  nearly  in  line  with  the  work  I  have  tried  to  do. 

The  man  who  is  to  give  away  money  must  choose  the  field  in 
which  he  is  to  do  it.  If  I  had  had  a  thousand  times  as  much  as  I 
had  I  could  not  have  answered  all  the  requests  that  have  been 
made  of  me. 

PAYS  TRIBUTE  TO  MRS.  PEARSONS 

I  have  no  criticism  to  pass  on  any  one  else  who  chooses  a  differ- 
ent method,  but  I  believed  that  my  own  money  would  go  farthest 
and  do  most  good  if  I  invested  it  in  the  young  manhood  and 
young  womanhood  of  our  country.  So  my  wife  and  I  chose 
twenty-two  years  ago  to  invest  in  Christian  education. 

For  eighteen  years  I  had  her  companionship  and  constant  help. 
In  the  last  four  years  I  have  continued  this  work  which  she  and 
I  so  long  enjoyed  together.  The  choice  we  made  was  a  beautiful 
one,  and  a  happy  one.  I  cannot  tell  how  much  joy  there  has  been 
in  it  for  us  both.  I  can  only  be  glad  that  we  were  led  to  do  as 
we  have  done. 

300 


APPENDIX  2 

I  have  not  said  much  about  the  spirit  which  has  been  behind 
these  gifts.  I  am  a  plain  business  man,  and  I  talk  in  plain  lan- 
guage, the  language  of  commerce  and  of  common  sense.  But  I 
want  to  say  more  earnestly  than  I  have  ever  said  before  that  I 
believe  I  have  been  guided  in  this  work.  I  do  not  think  it  has 
all  been  of  my  own  choosing  or  planning. 

NEVER  HAS  BEEN  A  HYPOCRITE 

Whatever  people  have  said  of  me  they  have  never  called  me  an 
old  hypocrite.  I  do  not  care  to  say  more  than  I  am  now  saying 
about  the  spirit  which  has  guided  these  gifts,  but  I  should  be  false 
to  myself  if  I  said  less  than  this. 

I  have  never  been  a  sectarian.  For  good  reasons  considerable 
of  my  work  has  been  done  for  Congregational  institutions,  and 
next  to  that  Presbyterians  claim  my  interest.  But  I  have  done 
this  in  no  sectarian  spirit.  Among  the  colleges  that  I  have 
helped  are  Methodist,  Baptist,  Quaker,  and  nonsectarian  insti- 
tutions. 

But  I  have  emphasized  the  Christian  idea,  because  I  believe 
that  education  is  of  little  value  without  character,  and  may  be 
even  harmful.  I  have  tried  to  make  my  gifts  a  contribution  to 
the  work  of  God  and  the  welfare  of  mankind. 

I  got  some  idea  of  the  value  of  Christian  education  in  my  early 
association  with  Mary  Lyon,  the  founder  of  Mount  Holyoke  Col- 
lege. That  noble  woman  used  to  come  to  my  house  and  when  I 
began  the  practise  of  medicine  I  was  near  her  college.  I  have 
been  able  to  befriend  it  since.  I  gave  it  a  building  and  some 
money  for  endowment.  I  do  not  believe  there  is  in  New  England, 
or  in  all  the  country  for  that  matter,  a  better  college  for  women 
than  Mount  Holyoke.  It  stands  in  my  mind  for  an  ideal  of  Chris- 
tian womanhood,  and  I  believe  in  Christian  womanhood,  and 
Christian  manhood. 

Some  of  my  gifts  seem  to  me  almost  to  have  been  taken  out  of 
the  sphere  of  my  own  planning.  There  is  one  of  them  that  I 
think  of  which  seems  to  me  to  have  been  a  direct  inspiration.  I 
refer  to  the  $50,000  which  I  gave  to  establish  the  water  works  for 

301 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

Berea  college.  That  was  the  most  beautiful  gift  I  ever  made. 
When  I  think  of  the  way  that  came  about  and  all  the  good  that 
has  been  done  I  consider  that  gift  an  inspiration. 

I  have  the  greatest  joy  in  my  colleges.  They  are  my  children. 
They  are  my  only  children.  They  are  good  children  and  growing 
children.  No  father  was  ever  more  proud  of  his  family  than  I 
am  of  these  colleges.  I  have  nurtured  them,  loved  them,  scolded 
them  sometimes,  but  I  have  watched  them  with  more  affection 
than  they  have  always  realized.  And  they  are  my  joy  and  crown. 
I  have  no  more  money  for  them,  but  all  the  affection  which  I  ever 
had  for  them  I  still  treasure. 

I  like  to  think  of  them,  from  old  Vermont,  where  I  was  born, 
across  the  continent  to  Pacific  University  in  Oregon,  and  all  the 
way  from  Ashland,  in  the  pine  woods  of  Wisconsin,  to  Rollins  in 
Florida,  and  to  Pomona  in  southern  California.  Their  names  are 
precious  to  me,  and  their  prosperity  brings  me  great  joy. 

PRAISE  FOR  THE  NEWSPAPERS 

I  wish  I  could  send  greeting  on  this  birthday  to  all  my  friends 
near  and  far.  I  should  like  to  answer  all  the  letters  and  send  mes- 
sages to  all  the  institutions  which  send  their  greetings  to  me.  I 
cannot  send  individual  messages  to  all  of  them,  but  I  send  a  hearty 
word  of  appreciation  through  the  medium  of  the  public  press. 

I  want  to  say  a  word  to  the  newspapers.  They  have  always 
been  my  friends.  They  have  advertised  my  efforts,  and  have 
encouraged  colleges  to  meet  my  conditions.  In  some  cases  the 
effort  would  entirely  have  failed  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  hearty 
support  of  the  press.  I  have  not  sought  newspaper  notoriety. 
I  have  been  careless  what  they  have  said  about  my  methods,  but 
I  want  at  this  time  to  express  my  appreciation  of  the  courtesy 
and  helpfulness  of  the  press  throughout  the  country. 

I  hope  that  I  shall  live  to  be  100.  The  conditions  of  my  general 
health  are  such  that  that  does  not  seem  impossible.  But  I  cannot 
live  nine  more  years  as  strenuous  as  the  last  have  been.  I  have 
lived  in  the  joy  of  achievement,  and  with  the  strain  of  sympathy 
with  the  institutions  I  have  been  helping. 

302 


APPENDIX 


LOOKS  BACK  WITH  THANKFULNESS 

I  have  taken  upon  myself  more  of  their  burden  than  they  could 
realize.  I  cannot  do  this  longer.  What  time  may  remain  for  me 
must  be  spent  in  quiet.  What  money  I  have  is  fully  provided  for. 
I  look  back  with  great  thankfulness  over  the  ninety-one  years  of 
my  life,  and  especially  over  the  last  twenty-two. 

If  these  years  seem  remarkable  to  my  friends,  they  seem  noth- 
ing less  than  wonderful  to  me. 

I  send  this  final  message  to  the  colleges  I  have  helped.  Guard 
faithfully  your  endowment  funds.  Use  careful  business  methods 
in  placing  the  funds  of  the  college.  But  even  more  carefully 
guard  your  students.  Keep  them  from  harm,  for  the  hope  of  the 
country  is  in  the  young  people  you  are  training. 

I  should  like  to  give  a  word  of  advice  also  to  prosperous  men. 
Do  not  put  off  your  benefactions  till  you  are  too  old  to  enjoy 
them.  Do  not  leave  your  money  to  people  to  quarrel  over.  Do 
not  shorten  your  lives  by  extravagances.  Find  some  good  thing 
which  ought  to  be  done,  and  begin  to  do  it. 

Take  that  field  of  philanthropy  and  make  it  your  own.  Put  in 
your  work  in  such  a  way  that  you  come  to  be  known  as  a  friend 
of  the  cause  to  which  you  give  your  efforts.  And  the  experiences 
that  that  course  will  bring  will  cause  you  greater  joy  than  any 
other  in  life. 


303 


APPENDIX  3 

NINETY-FIRST  BIRTHDAY:  GREETING  OF  THE  CHI- 
CAGO CONGREGATIONAL  CLUB  TO  DOCTOR 
D.  K.  PEARSONS  APRIL  14,  1911 

WRITTEN  BY  REV.  DR.  SIMEON  GILBERT 

April  14  has  come  to  be  a  cherished  red-letter  day  with  us,  as 
well  as  with  you;  and  we,  the  members  of  our  Congregational 
Club,  are  all  of  one  mind  and  one  heart  tonight  as  we  turn  to 
think  of  you.  And,  as  you  must  already  know,  our  thought  is 
full  of  love,  of  admiration,  of  gratefulness  as  we  offer  heartfelt 
congratulation  on  this  your  Ninety-first  birthday. 

Ninety-one  years;  and  what  years  they  have  been — these  years 
of  discoveries  and  inventions,  modern  miracles  at  which  all  men 
wonder,  necessitating  perpetual  crises,  evolutions  and  revolutions 
so  many  of  them  taking  place  within  the  measure  of  your  own  life ! 
No  doubt  you  have  reached  the  period  where  there  is  no  resent- 
ment at  having  Shakespeare's  word  applied  to  you : 

"Oh,  sir,  you  are  old, 
Nature  in  you  stands  at  the  very  verge  of  her  confine." 

Even  sunsets,  it  is  said  you  know,  "do  take  a  sober  coloring 
from  an  eye  that  hath  kept  watch  o'er  man's  mortality";  but 
what  we  are  thinking  is  of  the  gracious  quality,  the  meaning,  the 
culminating  issues  and  beneficent  outcome  of  this  long  life  that 
has  been  given  you.  And  so  we  unite  in  thanking  God  for  what 
during  all  these  years,  he  has  been  doing  for  you,  and  has  been 
doing  through  you,  for  our  country  and  the  world.  Surely  it 
were  not  possible,  now,  to  think  of  it  all,  the  acute  timeliness,  the 
largeness,  the  varied  scope  and  self-perpetuating  beneficence  of 
all  this  sagacious  planning  and  doing,  and  doing  and  giving  on 
behalf  of  these  near-fifty  Colleges  which  you  so  fondly  love  to 

304 


APPENDIX  3 

speak  of  as  "my  children,"  without  having  wakened  in  one's 
mind  a  feeling  akin  to  awe,  as  if  somehow  taken  up  into  partner- 
ship with  God  himself. 

It  was  a  beginning  of  good  fortune  for  you — as  some  of  us  also 
have  fine  reasons  for  believing — that  you  were  given  birth  and 
early  training  up  in  Vermont.  Fortunate,  too,  perhaps,  that 
you  were  not  allowed  to  stay  there  too  long!  Then  how  often, 
oh,  how  often  you  must  have  blessed  the  good  Hand  of  Provi- 
dence which  led  you,  while  in  your  early  prime,  down  the  valley 
of  the  Connecticut,  loveliest  of  river  valleys,  in  sight  of  old 
Mount  Tom  and  the  classic  Mount  Holyoke,  and  opened  the  way 
for  you  to  the  gracious  home  of  Deacon  Chap  in,  and,  quite  as 
important,  to  that  of  Miss  Chapin — foreordained  to  be  evermore 
the  good  genius  of  your  own  home,  the  chiefest  boon  in  your  life. 
Moreover,  of  like  far-reaching  good  fortune  was  it  that  there,  as 
you  drove  your  Doctor's  gig  up  and  down  among  those  pictur- 
esque hills  and  valleys  you  came  to  know  also,  that  inspired  woman, 
one  of  the  most  prophetic  spirits  of  her  time,  Mary  Lyon;  and  that 
just  at  the  time  when  she  was  not  only  founding  and  making 
Mt.  Holyoke  Seminary,  but  was  beginning  to  make  that  great 
new  epoch  in  modern  educational  history  for  women,  the  world 
over.  And  we  suspect  that  nobody  ever  learned  a  greater  lesson 
from  that  inspired  educator  and  college  builder,  than  did  the 
young  doctor  in  his  gig,  as  he  began  dreaming  for  himself  the 
new  scheme  of  life;  and  ever  after  was  not  disobedient  to  the  far- 
vision.  Of  course  little  enough,  at  the  time,  did  he  know  what 
it  all  meant.  At  any  rate,  he  had  been  confronted  by  his  "Burn- 
ing Bush"  in  the  desert,  and  began  to  heed  the  imperativeness  of 
the  Inner  Voice. 

And  now,  as  from  this  happy  point  of  view  you  look  back  over 
the  long  way  in  which  you  have  been  so  graciously  led,  how  timely 
it  must  seem  to  you,  the  time  when  you  were  led  to  come  west,  to 
come  here  to  Chicago.  Not  a  day  too  soon,  nor  a  day  too  late. 
It  was  exactly  the  time  for  you,  in  your  way,  to  make  here  your 
fortune,  as  we  call  it. 

Then,  when  some  twenty-five  years  later,  now  some  twenty- 

305 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K  PEARSONS 

two  years  ago,  the  same  gracious  Hand  struck  the  hour,  the 
moment  for  the  grand,  new  task  to  be  taken  up,  there  was,  as  we 
love  to  recall,  no  paltering,  no  divided  counsels.  And  today,  as 
we  glance  over  this  last  and  most  unique  period  in  your  life,  the 
great  educational  and  college-building  era  of  it,  there  seems  to 
us  nothing  more  strikingly  worthy  of  note,  than  its  supreme 
timeliness. 

It  was  a  just  remark  of  Professor  Dexter  of  Yale,  that  if  the 
founding  of  Harvard  College  had  been  delayed  twenty-five  years, 
the  whole  course  of  New  England  history  would  have  been  differ- 
ent. No  doubt  of  it.  But  here  we  have  in  mind  not  one  college, 
but  fifty  such  cobperant  factors  in  American  life;  colleges  which 
had  indeed  been  founded  some  years  before,  but  which,  by  reason 
of  the  scantiness  and  extreme  uncertainty  of  their  provisions  and 
equipment,  were  utterly  inadequate  to  cope  with  the  new  educa- 
tional conditions  and  necessities. 

Think  of  it,  how  tremendously  different  the  case  of  the  higher 
educational  problem  in  our  country  would  have  been  today,  had 
not  somebody  in  the  all-seeing  Providence  of  God  been  raised  up 
to  take  the  timely  initiative,  and  with  contagious  consecration 
and  courage  set  going  this  majestic  educational  movement.  The 
very  stones  would  have  cried  out. 

Let  those  of  us  realize  it  who  can,  the  sinister  drift  in  American 
character  and  life  had  the  man  chosen  of  God  for  this  new-century 
educational  movement  been  disobedient  to  the  heavenly  vision; 
had  he,  instead  of  consecrating  himself  to  his  mission,  been  only 
half-hearted  about  it  and  in  some  paltering  evasion  trifled  with  it 
and  sought  to  bargain  with  his  conscience  in  putting  off  the  mat- 
ter, and  putting  it  over  to  the  "dead  hand"  of  some  last  will  and 
testament,  which  might  or  might  not  have  been  made  good. 

What  if  all  these  half-a-hundred  Colleges,  east  and  west,  north 
and  south,  Beloit  and  Berea,  Carleton  and  Colorado,  and  the 
rest,  and,  especially,  our  own  Chicago  Theological  Seminary — 
in  its  way  the  sacred  capital  of  them  all — had  been  in  shiftless 
abandonment  left  in  their  poverty  and  utter  inadequacy  of  endow- 
ment and  support  to  drag  along  at  a  poor  dying  rate  their  losing 

306 


APPENDIX  3 

competition  with  the  non-Christian  schools;  where  would  we  be 
today? 

Nor  in  this  connection  should  mention  be  omitted  either  of 
certain  beginnings  of  large  educational  endowments  through  the 
American  Board  in  mission  lands,  or  of  gifts  made  to  vital  inter- 
ests in  our  own  City,  including  besides  the  Chicago  Theological 
Seminary,  the  McCormick  Theological  Seminary,  the  Presby- 
terian Hospital,  the  Art  Institute,  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association,  and  specially  the  Chicago  City  Missionary  Society; 
gifts  amounting  to  over  a  million  dollars,  all  in  addition  to  the 
four  or  five  millions  given  elsewhere — all  destined  to  have  effects 
of  incalculable  importance,  "ages  on  ages  telling." 

Never,  never  will  men  of  the  illumined  apprehension  fail  to 
appreciate  the  "thrice  and  four  times"  valued  gifts  thus  early 
made,  when  most  they  were  needed. 

And  then,  one  other  thing;  it  must  be  a  satisfaction  to  you, 
Dr.  Pearsons,  as  it  is  to  us,  to  think  of  the  number  of  other  more 
or  less  illustrious  educational  givers,  some  of  them  with  indeed 
many  times  more  millions  than  you  have  been  entrusted  with — 
who  have  graciously  acknowledged  their  indebtedness  to  you, 
your  precedent,  example  and  way  of  making  your  gifts;  the  con- 
ditioning way,  which  has  won  so  many  thousands  of  others  into 
the  same  widening  and  inspiring  fellowship  of  educationalists  and 
timely  helpers. 

There  is  a  Scripture,  you  know,  which  speaks  of  a  time  when 
one  should  chase  a  thousand,  and  two  put  ten  thousand  to  flight. 
Unspeakable  is  the  felicity  of  our  own  time  when  one  individual, 
starting  in  the  nick  of  time,  may  be  worth  a  thousand  men;  when 
one  may  touch  a  button  and  set  enormous  systems  of  activity  into 
correlated  motion  and  power;  when  one  may  pitch  the  tune  and 
thousands  of  voices  shall  roll  on  the  glorious  symphony. 

Let  Homer  sing  as  he  may  in  deathless  verse  of  proud  Troy 
and  the  heroes  and  battles  that  surge  about  its  falling  walls;  let 
the  Latin  Poet  more  prophetic  in  his  spirit  sing  of  "arms  and  the 
man"  and  celebrate  the  far-visioned  epic  of  the  kingdom  that 
was  to  be,  the  "kingdom  bounded  by  the  ocean,  the  fame  of  it  by 

807 


LIFE  OF  DR.  D.  K.  PEARSONS 

the  stars."  But  this  new  educational  epoch,  which  is  so  directly 
to  help  on  "the  happy  history,"  not  for  our  America  only  but  for 
all  the  world,  this  will  call  for  a  new  kind  of  epic  for  its  fitting 
celebration,  should  some  one  ever  appear  competent  for  its 
portrayal. 

Meanwhile,  our  dear  Dr.  Pearsons,  grateful  as  we  are  to  him 
who  is  the  giver  of  every  perfect  gift  and  of  all  good  giving,  be 
assured  that  we  all  join  with  profound  affection  in  thanking  you 
for  all  that  you  these  so  many  years  have  been  doing,  and  in 
fervent  prayer  and  hope  that  this  later  portion  of  your  life  may  be 
enriched  with  the  divinest  comforting  and  good  cheer,  and  that 
the  continuing  history  and  ever-increasing  output  of  these  fifty 
Colleges  and  of  this  our  Seminary  may  more  and  more  illuminate 
the  wisdom  of  what  has  been  so  opportunely  and  worthily  done 
for  them. 

In  that  mystical  Scripture  of  one  of  the  Prophets,  reference,  you 
remember,  is  made  to  a  "window  opened  in  heaven";  exactly 
what  is  meant  by  it  we  may  not  know,  but  in  view  of  the  ineffable 
satisfactions  and  strange  gladness  of  spirit  in  this  Christly  busi- 
ness for  others,  which  you — you  and  she  who  was,  and  still  is, 
your  wisest  and  closest  partner  in  it  all — have  experienced,  do  we 
not  seem  to  see  at  least  a  glimpse  of  its  meaning?  A  window 
opened  in  Heaven. 

(  SIMEON  GILBERT. 

Signed — COMMITTEE  OF  THE  CLUB  <  OZORA  S.  DAVIS. 

(  THOMAS  C.  MCMILLAN. 


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UJIO! 


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